The “Sennhauser” is one of fewer than ten known examples by Guarneri del Gesù with backs made from maple cut “on the slab,” which dramatizes the appearance of the flames in the wood. Interestingly, the “King Joseph,” “Stern, Panette,” and “Sennhauser” all have backs of this rare type and were probably cut from the same log.
Little is known of the early history of the “Sennhauser” violin. In 1924, the Hamma firm of Stuttgart sold it to Dirksen Adolf Sennhauser, thus the name of the instrument. By the 1931 publication of The Violin-Makers of the Guarneri Family, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in partnership with the Hills owned the violin. In 1944, Ernest Dupont Meyrowitz purchased the violin. Then Joseph Fischoff, an enthusiastic amateur living near Chicago, acquired the instrument and enjoyed it for many years. Late in his life, he established the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana.
In 1989, Bein & Fushi acquired the instrument from Fischoff through an intermediary and sold it to the present owner, who generously makes the violin available to exceptional artists through The Stradivari Society®. In recent years, the renowned violinists Leila Josefowicz, Yoon Kyung Kwon, Sarah Chang, and Mayuko Kamio have performed on the “Sennhauser” in association with The Stradivari Society.
