King George

This precious violin dates from 1710 and was named after its owner, King George III of England. In 1800 he presented it to a Scottish officer whose motto was "not without my Stradivarius", due to his reverence for the instrument. One of Wellington's cavalrymen, he fell in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

    
His violin "survived" and was found undamaged in his horse's saddlebag. Bernhard Molique, a student of Ludwig Spohr, was the next owner of the instrument. It was then owned by Baron von Dreyfuss, a student of Molique.  
   
  The relationship between the Dreyfuss family and King George was more than just an affair, as it lasted until 1889. The Berlin violin expert August Riechers then became the new owner before the German American dealer Emil Hermann purchased the violin from Professor Meyer and sold it on to Tokyo. Before the outbreak of World War II it found its way back to Berlin by a route that remains undocumented.  
     
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