Mechanical Music Articles and Stories

Rembert, The “Stradivarius Wurlitzer”

Story by Fred P. Wurlitzer, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
Grandson of Howard Eugene Wurlitzer.

Introduction by Terry Hathaway

This page takes a peek at the mighty House of Wurlitzer for something other than its automatic musical instruments. While many enthusiasts and collectors of mechanical music machines are usually quite familiar with Wurlitzer’s large manufacturing facility located in North Tonawanda, New York, there are other aspects to the company that merit investigation, especially for an organization that once meant music to millions of people.

Long before and long after the automatic musical instrument era had come and gone Wurlitzer had been and continued to offer a huge selection of standard musical instruments, plus accessory items, these sales primarily directed or carried out through the company’s Cincinnati, Ohio, headquarter offices and showrooms. A relatively small but still significant and valued part of this mammoth operation was the Old Violin Room at the Company’s Cincinnati location. Here, in this special room, Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer, the second son of Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer, founder of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, and Rudolph Henry’s son, Rembert Wurlitzer, dealt with some of the world’s rarest and most precious string instruments, including an astounding number of Antonio Stradivari violins.

While the name Rembert Wurlitzer is probably unknown to most collectors of automatic musical instruments today, he, nonetheless, played an important role in Wurlitzer’s sometimes overlooked history. He was a well-trained and astute connoisseur of violins and other rare stringed instruments, and Rembert Wurlitzer in his day was probably the world’s leading authority on the Stradivari instruments and their authentication. This page introduces a side of the House of Wurlitzer that is mostly unknown today, but that was important in the world of non-automatic music. What follows is the story of Rembert Wurlitzer—affectionately known as the “Stradivari Wurlitzer.”

Rembert, The “Stradivarius Wurlitzer”

A painting of the Wurlitzer Family Crest commissioned by Farny Wurlitzer.

Farny Wurlitzer (1883 – 1972), my Great Uncle and CEO of The Wurlitzer Company well after my Grandfather Howard Wurlitzer (1871 - 1928) died, traced, with the help of my Great Uncle Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer (1873 – 1948), a family tree back to the ancient Teutonic knights’ family of Wurr of Nürnberg or Nuremberg around 1000 A.D. My own DNA analysis suggests a Viking ancestry.

There is no record of music making among the Wurr family. “Itz” in old German may have meant a place like plǡtz and “er” probably meant from, so the Wurlitzers were from places where Wurrs had lived. The old Wurr knights and early Wurlitzers had a really cool coat of arms. On the back of this painting of the family coat of arms (shown below), which Farny gave me many years ago, he wrote the family tree. Wurlitzers first started making musical instruments about 400 years ago.

On July 6, 1964, Farny gave an address to the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (“ATOE”) in Buffalo.1 Farny traced the family tree again, as he had done on the back of the coat of arms painting. The first Wurlitzer, after the Wurrs, was Heinrich Wurlitzer born in 1596, and then Nicolaus Wurlitzer, born in 1659, who made musical instruments. Heinrich probably made musical instruments before Nicolaus, although that is not recorded.

In John H. Fairfield’s, Known Violin Makers, published in New York in 1942, in adding to the Wurlitzer family tree, Mr. Fairfield states that John George Wurlitzer, who was born in 1726, followed the craft of violin making. Hans Adam Wurlitzer was elected in 1701 to membership in the lute makers’ guild of Saxony, and in 1732 he was identified as a master violin maker.2 There were other Wurlitzer music makers besides Nicolas, John, and Hans. Another member of the family, Frederick Wurlitzer, my namesake, was a child musical prodigy who toured Europe in concert presentations and became the court pianist to Frederick the Great of Prussia at the age of sixteen.

From father to oldest son following primogeniture, and sometimes younger sons, Wurlitzer music craftsmanship, musical instrument sales, and performing took place over four centuries. Making musical instruments was a home business. In East Germany the name Wurlitzer became a word synonymous with musical instrument maker or someone involved somehow with music.

About 30 years ago when I visited Schöneck (“beautiful corner”) in East Germany, the home of Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer, founder of the Wurlitzer Company, I saw musical instruments over 200 years old with the name of Wurlitzer on them displayed in the nearby museum, the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Markneukirchen in Saxony. The story of Wurlitzers making musical instruments, including violins, portrays them as “Geigenbaumeisters” (i.e. expert violin makers) starting about 400 years ago, and is a remarkable one. Although I was trained as a surgical oncologist, I remain intrigued by Wurlitzer history.

When I was a boy, my father Raimund Wurlitzer (1896 – 1986), who was the only son of Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer’s eldest son Howard Wurlitzer, told me many stories about the Wurlitzer Music Company and in particular stories about Rembert Wurlitzer (1904 – 1963), his first cousin and my first cousin once removed. Rembert was born in Cincinnati as the only son of Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer (1873 – 1948), who in turn was the second son of Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831 – 1914). In 1856, after emigrating from Schöneck in 1853, Franz Rudolph founded the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company3 that is usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer or the Wurlitzer Music Company that came to be listed on the NYSE.4

One time, my father told me that at a Wurlitzer Board meeting a discussion arose about what to name Wurlitzer player piano rolls. My grandfather, Howard, the CEO, suggested “ABC” rolls. My father suggested a more original name, “QRS,” and so Wurlitzer piano rolls became QRS rolls at my father’s suggestion. This may not seem like a very big deal, but it is for many automatic musical instrument collectors, especially those who collect pianos that play standard 88-note piano rolls.

Other stories followed, but this is not the place to recount them. It continues to astound me that among American Theatre Organ Society members, other organ aficionados, and the large worldwide crowd of automatic musical instrument enthusiasts who zealously collect Wurlitzer built and/or distributed self-playing instruments, such as player pianos, artistic reproducing pianos, the coin operated harp, coin operated cabinet and keyboard pianos and keyboard style orchestrions, photoplayers, the imposing and imported cabinet style Mandolin and Concert PianOrchestras, the imported cabinet style Paganini Violin Pianos and Orchestrions, military and concert band-organs, plus a line of colorful juke-boxes, there remains to this day an endearing and ongoing fascination with both the Wurlitzer company and the Wurlitzer family history.

Rembert Wurlitzer (1904 – 1963), probably in the late 1920s.

During the annual summer vacation break for schools, Rembert would often travel to Europe to learn about violins and violin making. But after working with the Wurlitzer Company, Rembert dropped out of Princeton so he could become more of an authority on rare violins. After studying violins and violin making at Mirecourt, France, and in Italy, Germany, and England for two and a half years,5 studying under the prior-leading-violin expert of the world, Alfred Hill, his father, Rudolph Henry, considered Rembert an authority. Alfred Hill asked Rembert to join W.E. Hill & Sons, but he respectfully declined. He chose to work, instead of completing his studies at Princeton, learning a great deal from his father, Rudolph Henry, who had studied violins in Berlin and learned from many violin dealers. In 1926, the Wurlitzer Board considered him ready, at the age of 22, to be in charge of Wurlitzer acquisitions.6 For twenty-three years Rembert aggressively bought, authenticated, and sold Stradivari instruments.

In 1949, he formed the Rembert Wurlitzer Company.7 Over time, Rembert developed an obsessive and possessive interest in Stradivari violins, increasing his unusually insightful knowledge through his ever-growing rare violin purchasing experiences.

My favorite story that I heard several times from my father was how Rembert discovered a Stradivarius violin. He was sitting at an outside café in Berlin with my father when a gentleman, Rembert presumed to be a gypsy, started playing a violin—a red violin. Rembert perked up, and then after listening intently, he said to his companions and my father, “That violin may be a Stradivarius.” After examining the violin he said, “It is a Stradivarius.” This story seemed to me as a youth interesting, but not world shaking. My father’s narration, which was not the least bit hearsay, was direct confirmation of how Rembert discovered a red Stradivarius violin. This Rembert red violin was in my opinion the legendary Mendelssohn.

Walter Hamma working on a violin, possibly in the mid-1920s. Walter Hamma was a colleague of Rembert Wurlitzer.

Although Walter Hamma (1916 – 1988), a German violin maker and dealer, surely visited Berlin from time to time, I suspect it was not often because his business was in Stuttgart. It was not Hamma who discovered the red violin in Berlin, I claim, although Tarisio lists him as the first recorded owner and Rembert as the second recorded owner after Lilli and Franz von Mendelssohn followed by Joseph Joachim. Tarisio does not list Joachim as a later owner.8

It was certainly a coincidence that Rembert, the world’s greatest authority on Stradivari instruments, happened to be present when someone played an unknown Stradivari. It was well known Rembert had a very good ear.

Who discovered The (Red) Mendelssohn, I do not definitively know, except in my opinion it was not Walter Hamma, who Tarisio lists as the first owner, but rather Rembert Wurlitzer. If I knew which red violin for sure, I might cheekily call it the “Wurlitzer Red Stradivarius,” if it was not The Mendelssohn, because Rembert discovered a red Stradivarius. There are few other Stradivari violins as red as The Mendelssohn, so by a process of elimination the red Stradivarius Rembert discovered was likely The Mendelssohn.

Another suspect was—until I compared photos with The Mendelssohn—a Stradivari violin Tarisio #51374, I call the “Unnamed,” whose provenance began with Rembert. Tarisio does not list any earlier owners than Rembert, so who owned this violin before Rembert? After comparing Tarisio photos of the backs of the two violins, it is no longer just a coincidence that the Unnamed and The Mendelson were both made in 1720. The Unnamed and The Mendelssohn are in my opinion the same violin. This unnamed violin is the one Rembert discovered in Berlin at an outdoor cafe, and I would rename it the “Wurlitzer Red Stradivarius,” except it is now The Mendelssohn. Evidently, Wurlitzer/Rembert did not recognize the Unnamed as The Mendelssohn until years later, while inventories made before that time gave the violin no name.

According to Tarisio, Rembert bought the violin from Hamma in 1956, and then, actually his estate since he died in 1963, sold the violin to Luther Rosenthal and Son. Rosenthal put the violin up for sale with Christie’s auction house where the violin was bought by Mr. Pitcairn at a price of $1.7 million for his daughter, the famous violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn. The provenance is definitely confusing.

When I communicated several times with Marianne, Rembert’s daughter, who had worked for her father for ten years, she commented that she did not recall The Mendelssohn in her father’s inventory. That remark seemed an existential threat to the theme of this story, but now I am convinced The Mendelssohn was The Unnamed violin filed under another name than The Mendelssohn. This is illustrative of how records can be misleading and provenance difficult to determine.

These photos were not taken at the same distance so one cannot judge apparent sizes. It is the patterns that are indeed the same that are convincing. Tarisio did not give measurements for both violins.

Others have also speculated that the red violin discovered by Rembert was indeed the “Red Mendelssohn of 1720” or just “The Mendelssohn” that inspired the movie, The Red Violin. Indeed, Rembert did purchase The Mendelssohn in 1956, according to Tarisio,9 well after selling it, I suspect, to Hamma in Stuttgart in the mid to late 1920s.

Hamma records are unavailable, at least to me, because the company is out of business. On my behalf, Friedericke Philipson of the Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Markneukirchen, near the ancestral home of Schöneck, contacted Hans Rehberg in Freudenstadt Obermusbach, who has researched the Hamma-Family. Unfortunately, Mr. Rehberg does not know where the documents of the company went and so could not be of help either in tracking down the history of The Mendelssohn further. So, in part, this story of a Rembert red violin remains a mystery story.

There was an unusual over 200-year gap in provenance of The Mendelssohn, until it appeared in the hands of Hamma in Stuttgart. Rembert bought The Mendelssohn in 1956 from Hamma, and then sometime after 1956 and before his death in 1963, Rembert sold The Mendelssohn to Luther Rosenthal and son.10 Although there is no solid evidence that this was the violin that Rembert discovered before Hamma obtained the violin, there is circumstantial evidence, namely the story my father told me about it being red in color—and there is still other evidence.

When I was a young lad traveling along with my father, I met Rembert three times in Manhattan. I wish I had asked him which violin my father said he had discovered. I wish my father had asked too, but the movie The Red Violin was yet to be made. The Red Violin name had little, if no meaning to me, my father, or possibly even Rembert back then, although in my immediate Wurlitzer household lore there had been a red violin that Rembert had discovered.

Wurlitzer became a leading international center for rare string instruments. It also bought, sold, authenticated, and/or restored more than half the world's 600 known Stradivari (not all violins), and supplied instruments to Fritz Kreisler, David Oistrakh and Isaac Stern among others.11 Wurlitzer’s violin department was independently directed by Rembert after 1926. In 1949 Rembert founded the Rembert Wurlitzer Company after buying out the Wurlitzer rare violin department. Rembert collected a host of other important old, rare musical instruments, including many fine examples crafted by Guadagnini, Amati, Gaglianos, Rocca, Bergenzi, Stainer, Lorenzini, Guarneri, and Giuseppe.

Over the course of many years, a Wurlitzer collected, handled, and/or sold 135 or more Stradivari violins. Rudolph Henry or Wurlitzer, led by Rembert’s rare violin purchasing, bought and sold about thirty-nine of these 135. Goodkind only lists Wurlitzer ownership as “Wurlitzer” without differentiating between Rudolph Henry and Rembert. “It is estimated that in total, Antonio Stradivari made around 1,100 musical instruments. Of these, 600 (not all violins) are still thought to be in existence. Of that number, only 244 violins are currently accounted for.”12 Wikipedia lists 248 known Stradivari violins.13 These numbers are probably misleading. The truth is estimates of known and accounted for Stradivari violins are widely diverse.

The definitive work on Stradivari violins is the Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari, by Herbert Goodkind, who lists 635 Stradivari violins known but not necessarily accounted for entirely at this time. This number is profoundly different from the estimates of 244 to 248 other sources represent as being accounted for. E. Doring lists 440 known Strads and W.E. Hill only 175. Mr. Goodwin’s estimate of 635 is probably a more accurate figure, although a number of the Strads he lists have sketchy provenances. Mr. Goodkind estimates that about 2,000 Stradivari instruments were originally made.

At least 135 of all the known Antonio Stradivari violins in the world were collected at one time or another by Rembert, some of these by Wurlitzer after 1926 when Rembert was in charge of violin sales and purchases. Rudolph is credited with up to thirty-nine of the 135, even though most of these early Wurlitzer purchases were at the direction of Rembert after 1926, so almost all of the Stradivari violins collected or sold by a Wurlitzer were by Rembert.

Nine violins of the 135 number were made by Francesco (Tarisio 42845) and Omobono (Tarisio 43108) Stradivari, who were sons of Antonio. Technically, these nine were Stradivari, but not Antonio Stradivaris. Depending upon which number of Stradivari one accepts as being known and accounted for, Rembert collected, authenticated, and sold anywhere from 22% to 56% or possibly over half of all known Stradivari violins accounted for in this world.

These facts surely confirm Rembert had been the world’s foremost rare violin authority and owner of the most Stradivarius violins ever. A list of the violins so far identified as having been collected by Wurlitzer (a.k.a. the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company or Wurlitzer Music Company), or Rembert is shown later on in Appendix 3. This list may still be incomplete.

This brief study is a story of Rembert and the Stradivari that he loved and in particular The Mendelssohn of 1720 that he had owned and that violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn now owns. Among my personal memories, I refer to Rembert as the “Stradivarius Wurlitzer,” just as there was a “Clarinet Wurlitzer,” whom I met in East Germany and whose family, including Fritz and Herman, historically, still makes clarinets today.14 Furthermore, I respectfully suggest that The Mendelssohn of 1720 is the Red Violin my father told me about several times when I was a youth, well before the movie The Red Violin ever emerged. My father was not an expert in violins, but he had a fantastic memory.

I have little doubt that when Rembert discovered his red Stradivarius he did not know the provenance. It was only later after he researched it that the provenance became better known or suspected. It must have been very difficult for Rembert to certify alone the red violin as a Stradivari when it had a 200-year or so gap in provenance. He may have called on his father, Rudolph Henry, for help, but there is no correspondence between them available to confirm this speculation. Rembert’s daughter, Marianne, could be of no help.

While provenance was still incomplete, records somewhere had shown Mendelssohns and Joseph Joachim had owned it. Rembert and his father were good detectives when searching for the history of a rare musical instrument. At the time, there was little reason to publicize the discovery, and moreover, Rembert did not seek publicity. The red violin was, after all, just another Stradivarius, and Wurlitzer had owned many.

The violin’s provenance was probably not immediately known. Circumstantial evidence, based primarily on my father’s story and the deep red color, unique among rare Stradivari violins, is that the red violin was The Mendelssohn and that the discoverer and authenticator was Rembert, possibly with the help of his father, Rudolph Henry, also an authority on rare violins. Anthony Zatorski, speaking for Tarisio, informed me that they did not have the Rembert authentications that might have been of help in further identifying the suspect violins.

Before Walter Hamma obtained the violin he would certainly have required authentication, and there was no one better qualified than Rembert to have provided authentication. In the rare violin sales business Rembert was truly an independent expert in the late 1920s and 1930s. Although those who sold violins usually authenticated them, many authentications were false, because few dealers except for Rembert or Rudolph Wurlitzer were completely honest or had the knowledge and experience to determine authenticity accurately.

It also took a good ear to identify a Stradivarius sound. Confirming a violin was a true Stradivarius required examination as well to confirm the craftsmanship was that of Stradivari. Mistakes could be made.

Violins have been forged for generations. Violin forgery in the nineteenth century was an industry for hundreds of luthiers. Few individuals had the skills and ears necessary to determine if a so-called rare violin, specifically a Stradivari, was genuine. Rembert had those rare talents.

Authentications from Rembert, whose integrity was unmatched, were genuine, and so Rembert’s authentication would have been necessary before Hamma bought an expensive Stradivari and especially a Stradivari violin with a 200-year gap in known ownership. The resurrection of an unknown Stradivari violin with a 200-year breach in history undoubtedly aroused profound suspicion that it was a fake. These particulars give circumstantial weight to the argument that Rembert was involved with The Mendelssohn before Hamma obtained it—probably from Rembert himself. Hamma would have been a fool to not have involved Rembert.

The 200-year or so gap in provenance was unique, because these instruments are so well known and prized. The Mendelssohn had simply disappeared for about 200 years, only to be resurrected sometime, probably in the mid to late 1920s, but possibly as well in the 1930s. This 200-year gap is part of this mystery story. I am facetiously also calling Rembert, “The Resurrector of The Mendelssohn.” After Rembert’s clearly recorded ownership in 1956, immediately after Hanna, he “resurrected” the violin again by authenticating and loving it further.

Yes, owners of Stradivari violins, like The Mendelssohn, can love their violins. Elizabeth Pitcairn, the current owner of The Mendelssohn is alleged to view her violin as “her life’s most inspiring mentor and friend.”15

Among the violins the Rembert Wurlitzer Company owned and then sold was the Henry Hottinger Collection bought in 1967. About thirty violins in all (not all were Stradivari) from that collection were subsequently dispersed all over the world. Additionally, there was Rudolph Wurlitzer Company’s 1929 purchase of the famous Wanamaker Collection consisting of forty-four stringed instruments, which at the time were the finest collection of Stradivari, Amati, and other old violins in the world.

On September 20, 1953, Rembert temporarily loaned four Stradivari instruments to the La Salle String Quartet, so their musicians could play them at a Cincinnati College of Music performance supported by my Grandmother Helene Wurlitzer. According to William Griess, a grandson of Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer (1873 – 1948), “These were the Baron Knoop violin of 1715, The Medici viola of 1690, the La Pucelle violin of 1709, and The Davidoff cello of 1712.” William Griess, whose parents kept the program for this performance, represented to me these four violins were used.

This event probably confirms that Rembert owned at one time La Pucelle or “The Virgin,” currently owned by David L. Fulton of Seattle, who probably has the largest collection today of rare musical instruments.16 The Tarisio Auction house in its index of rare violins does not cite Rembert as a past owner. That is a mistake, in my opinion, and is representative of the frequent difficulty present in developing the provenance of major rare instruments. Even if Rembert did not own La Pucelle at one time, that violin had unequivocally been in his possession. It is highly unlikely Rembert would have loaned La Pucelle or “The Virgin” to a string quartet and put it in airplane luggage from New York to Cincinnati without owning it, despite what any database might fail to reveal. Rembert was a man of great integrity, and whose authentications had great value. Rare violin databases are notoriously unreliable.

Sometimes records were incomplete purposefully for strong reasons of maintaining confidentiality. Even to this day, Tarisio often refuses to list current owners of Stradivari violins. Many times Rembert sold violins to individuals or entities who wished to remain anonymous. Complete anonymity for Rembert could have meant not listing in his records a violin he owned or even to whom he sold it. It might even have meant not disclosing a violin to his family. If Rembert’s memory was nearly as good as my father’s, or my Grandfather Howard’s, who my father said had a true eidetic memory, he would not have needed to keep exhaustive records.

Violins sold and authenticated by Wurlitzer retained a "Wurlitzer Number," a number glued inside the fiddle. Rembert put it in there to identify instruments later. According to David Fulton, “The Wurlitzers always did that, the Hills always did that. Bein and Fushi also did that. The Wurlitzer stock cards reveal a great deal about an instrument. On the stock card they would put the history of the instrument as it passed through their hands, as well as what they paid and sold it for, which is in a code. They encoded it so that someone glancing at the stock card couldn't necessarily tell what it sold for.”17 But Fulton asserts he knows the secret. However, Mr. Fulton with his database of Wurlitzer records could not help me.

A resource used in this article, in addition to the Wikipedia list of Stradivari instruments, was the book Stradivari, by Stewart Pollens. And still another resource was the very expensive and exhaustive Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari 1644-1737, with treatises on the life and work of the "Patriarch" of violinmakers. The book includes an inventory of 700 known or recorded Stradivari string instruments, plus an index of 3,500 names of past or present Stradivari owners, and photographs of 400 Stradivari instruments with 1,500 views in cloth in a slipcase. This book was inscribed by Herbert K. Goodkind as a paperback in 1972. Goodkind’s book is undoubtedly the most authoritative work today on Stradivari violins and its inventory is far more extensive than the Tarisio database.

A valuable third resource was William Griess, grandson of Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer, who related the La Salle String Quartet performance program that showed what instruments were made available by Rembert on September 20, 1953. Mr. Griess made a copy available to me of Farny Wurlitzer’s address to the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (“ATOE”) in 1964, and also reviewed this study as to its accuracy. A fourth source was Terry Hathaway, whose domain has been automatic musical instruments by Wurlitzer and other contemporary manufacturers. Terry, who is familiar with Wurlitzer family history, also reviewed this work. A fifth source was the auction house Tarisio, with their database taken off the Internet. A sixth, and particularly valuable resource, was Friederike Philipson from the Musikinstrumenten–Museum Markneukirchen, who graciously provided early photographs of various Wurlitzers. She also confirmed Hamma records were unavailable or no longer in existence. A final resource was Marianne, Rembert’s daughter who communicated several times with the authors.

These principal resources collectively confirm the number of known Stradivari violins to be about 248 and up to about 635 in number and that Rembert or Wurlitzer collected and/or sold 135 or more Stradivari violins at one time or another. The profound difference in numbers of Stradivari violins known and accounted for is disturbing, but these differences are indisputable. Goodkind’s inventory is probably the most accurate. Many Stradivari, although known, remain unaccounted for since owners want to be anonymous. Others have just been lost or inadvertently destroyed. Some have amazing stories of being lost at sea like the Red Diamond of 1732 or the Hartley that went down with the Titanic and was later recovered. Others like the Sleeping Beauty of 1704 or The Mendelssohn of 1720 were resurrected after hundreds of years.

As to who was the greatest collector ever, it was Rembert Wurlitzer, although he did not own all his Stradivari violins at the same time. Even Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue, often referred to as the supreme collector of violins, had only ten Stradivari violins,18 and Luigi Tarisio, who died in 1854, had twenty-four Stradivari violins in his estate at the time of his passing.19

The list of violins in Appendix 3 (at the end of this paper) shows the breakdown from these sources the Stradivari violins collected at different times by Rembert himself, and by him and his father Rudolph for the Wurlitzer Company. It has been difficult to develop a full list of Stradivari violins owned at one time or another by Rembert, even using multiple resources, because so many records are incomplete, inaccurate, or unconsolidated, and sometimes differ from each other profoundly.

Therefore, I suspect Rembert or Wurlitzer collected at one time or another more than 135 Stradivari violins, including La Pucelle. After all, no one a hundred years ago, I more than suspect, was so compulsive that records had to be always complete any more than a pizza maker might compulsively keep track of all pizzas sold. Certainly, there are significant differences between Tarisio, E. Doring, F. and W. Hamma, W. Henley, W. E. Hill, and H. K. Goodkind records. The most reasonable explanation for these profound differences is that records, even those of Wurlitzer, were incomplete or difficult to examine. The best approach to determining numbers and provenance is to collate records, as I did, with Tarisio and Goodkind records.

In compiling the list of violins collected by Rembert, based on provenances provided by Tarisio Auction house, caution is warranted. Tarisio is named after the great violin collector Luigi Tarisio who died in 1854. After his death the famous luthier and master violin forger Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume found 144 violins, including twenty-four Stradivaris in Luigi’s attic.20 Unfortunately, Luigi kept no records of any of his transactions, nor inventory of his collections. The auction house Tarisio now provides questionable old provenances for many of the Tarisio/Vuillaume violins. Recent transactions and provenance of Stradivari violins are now better recorded, including ownership by Rembert Wurlitzer, but Tarisio’s old provenances are not infallible.21 Moreover, Rembert’s own inventories may not have been totally reliable either.

Identifying Stradivari forgeries is neither easy nor a totally trustworthy skill any more than is identifying old master painting forgeries. On an often-cited occasion, Vuillaume made two copies of Paganini’s Guarneri del Gesù Il Cannone, also known by the variants Il Cannone del Gesù, or The Cannon, often appended with Guarneri del Gesù, the Guarneri trademark. Paganini could not identify his original Guarneri by examining craftsmanship or by listening to its sound.22 Vuillaume made copies of The Messiah, and today there is widespread speculation that The Messiah in the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford is a Vuillaume forgery. Even experts like W. Hill, Rudolph, or Rembert undoubtedly made mistakes in authentication that were sometimes left unrecorded or better yet corrected later.

Unfortunately, mistakes had become not unheard of at Wurlitzer, but only rarely with Rembert who corrected mistakes by others. One reason why Rembert separated from Wurlitzer was a significant problem from outstanding guarantees on discredited instruments from one employee in particular who had been curator of the Wurlitzer collection and in charge of repairs, not authentications. In forming the Rembert Wurlitzer Company in 1949, Rembert was quoted as saying he “didn’t want to spend the rest of his life buying back Jay C. Freeman’s mistakes.”23 Rembert had not hired Mr. Freeman, who had become “a dilemma” impairing the reputation of Wurlitzer.24

Mr. Freeman was the titular head of the Wurlitzer Violin Department, although Rembert contributed to operations. Rembert was not in a position to fire Freeman. That left Rembert with the singular option of leaving.

Rembert’s wife, Lee, and his father, Rudolph Henry, supported Rembert leaving Wurlitzer. Rembert's daughter, Marianne, quotes Rudolph as saying,25 “Rembert, if you only knew how many years I have been waiting for you to come to this decision.” When Rudolph developed cancer and died in 1948, he had been unable to help Rembert financially when he formed his own company in 1949.

In identifying a Stradivari forgery, a good ear was essential in recognizing the Stradivari sound, as did Rembert when hearing the red violin for the first time. Today, oscilloscope sound patterns are useful for confirming a Stradivari to be authentic, but Rembert did not have an oscilloscope. Even using oscilloscopes today for spectrographic analysis, none of Rembert’s authentications have been reversed, to the best of my knowledge.

Rembert did not confirm a violin was a Stradivarius by sound alone. Examination of the craftsmanship was necessary. Even listening to the sound and examining craftsmanship could lead to mistakes, as Paganini had proved when he examined his Guarneri del Gesù Il Cannone side by side with two Vuillaume forgeries. Mistakes in certification undoubtedly occurred.

All of the instruments that Antonio Stradivari made bear a label written in Latin that reads, “Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno [date].” The label indicated the maker, the place of production, and the date. Rembert glued an identifying number inside each Stradivarius violin, but rather than demeaning the value of a Stradivarius, the Wurlitzer label added value, because of the Rembert Wurlitzer authentication.

The wood used by Stradivarius was usually maple infused with minerals. Some claim this infusion is the reason replication of sound has not been possible so far.26

Stradivari violins now sell for many millions, far more than what Rembert paid. The highest price paid so far for a Stradivarius violin was the “Lady Blunt” Stradivarius of 1721, which sold for a record $16 million in 2011 to an anonymous buyer who loaned the violin to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who kept it for the remainder of her life. Earlier in the 1890s, W. E. Hill & Sons had bought the violin from Lady Ann Blunt and sold it to an important collector, but not to the Wurlitzer Company or Rembert.

A rare viola, not a violin, made by Stradivari in 1719, The MacDonald Viola, owned at one time by The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company,27 did not sell at the reserve price of $45 million set by Sotheby’s in 2014. It was the first to be on the market in 50 years, according to Sotheby's auction house. It is also one of only two Stradivari violas still privately owned. The other is held in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Stradivari instruments are indeed rare and immensely valuable, if not priceless, and they are musical instruments of legend.

Two Rembert Stories

Many Stradivari known to have been owned at one time by Rembert have interesting stories. We shall embark upon two of these stories, starting first with the Hammer Stradivari The Hammer and then with the Red Violin, The Mendelssohn of 1720, and build my case further that this was the red violin Rembert discovered. In part, this ode to Rembert is a mystery story, because the complete provenance of The Mendelssohn is still very much unknown.

1. ANTONIO STRADIVARI
    A VIOLIN KNOWN AS THE HAMMER, CREMONA, 1707

Labelled Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis/Faciebat Anno 1707, length of back 14 inches (355 mm) with case (2) Tarisio #40643.

Provenance:

• Christian Hammer
• Bernard Sinsheimer
• Raymond Pitcairn (whose Grand-niece Elizabeth owned The Mendelssohn)
• Albert Wallace
• Rembert Wurlitzer
• Laddie Junkunc
• Present Owner

Christie Auction house wrote, “The violin, referred to as The Hammer, derives its name from the first recorded owner, 19th century Swedish collector, Christian Hammer. As court jeweler to the Swedish royal family, Christian Hammer was a collector with an insatiable appetite. During his lifetime, Hammer accumulated over 400,000 articles as varied as fine art, jewelry, books and manuscripts. Though little is documented regarding his musical instrument collection his existence was known to William E. Hill and Sons, who made mention of Hammer and this violin in Antonio Stradivari, His Life and Work, published in London in 1902.

In 1911 the violin was sold by the London firm of Hart & Son and brought to America by the violinist and teacher Bernard Sinsheimer. As well as being a celebrated soloist and chamber musician, Sinsheimer was a savvy collector who owned no fewer than five works by Stradivari during his career. The instrument later came into the possession of the collector, Raymond Pitcairn. The connoisseurship of Pitcairn is well documented. As a highly successful Philadelphia attorney, he owned two other Stradivari, as well as a 1737 Carlo Bergonzi and a Gasparo da Salo of 1570. Both music and connoisseurship continue to be evident in the Pitcairn family. The great-niece of Raymond Pitcairn is violin virtuoso Elizabeth Pitcairn, owner of the 1720 Stradivari known as The Mendelssohn. Purchased at Christie's London sales rooms in 1990, it was at the time the world auction record for a work by Stradivari.

In 1927, the Hammer passed to Albert H. Wallace through the New York dealer Emil Herrmann. A resident of Los Angeles, Wallace was also an important collector who possessed three other works by Stradivari, as well as a Bergonzi and a Nicolo Amati. In 1945 the violin was sold by Rembert Wurlitzer to Chicago businessman Laddie Junkunc. There the violin remained until 1992, when it came into possession of the present owner. Purchased for philanthropic reasons, the Hammer was, until recently, on loan to violinist Kyoko Takezawa. A prolific recording artist and celebrated soloist, Ms. Takezawa used the Hammer Stradivari as her primary performance instrument.28

Many of the great Stradivari violins have engaging nicknames like The Messiah, The Dolphin, The Virgin, The Lady Blunt, The Contessa, The Venus, and The Molitor (owned by Bonaparte) and all have added to the magical allure of these magnificent instruments. These nicknames added a “halo of mystery” to these violins.

Sometimes, ownership ran in families, such as a Pitcairn who owned The Hammer and now violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn who owns The Mendelssohn. Often owners would loan Stradivari violins to famous violinists. Many Stradivari have become legendary like The Mendelssohn and priceless or certainly irreplaceable to their owners. Rembert was indeed blessed to have owned so many of these superlative works of art.

In The Rainaldi Quartet, Paul Adam rhapsodizes about a Stradivari violin. “It’s a work of art to rank alongside the Mona Lisa, the Divine Comedy, and the operas of Verdi. It’s a masterpiece as great as anything Michelangelo produced, as profound as a Beethoven symphony, as sublime and universal as a Shakespeare tragedy.” Indeed, Stradivari violins are great works of art.

2. ANTONIO STRADIVARI
    A VIOLIN KNOWN AS THE MENDELSSOHN OR RED MENDELSSOHN OF 1720, CREMONA.

Violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn is the owner of the 1720 Stradivari known as The Mendelssohn. Purchased at Christie's London sales rooms in 1990 for $1,700,000, it was at the time the world auction record for a work by Stradivari. The violin appeared to vanish after its creation for more than 200 years, until I suggest it was discovered by Rembert in Berlin during the 1920s. Unfortunately, after writing her, Mme. Pitcairn could not be of help in developing further provenance of The Mendelssohn.

Rembert’s and my father’s childhood languages were German and English. The two of them sometimes went to Germany in the 1920s for business, pleasure, or to visit family. There was the “Clarinet Wurlitzer,” and in East Germany many Wurlitzer relatives. Rudolph Henry had gone to violin school in Berlin, and Rembert followed with studies in Europe in the 1920s. After East Germany opened up following reunification in 1990, I met Wurlitzers who had survived World War II. In Vienna there were other Wurlitzers who lived on Wurlitzergasse (i.e., Wurlitzer Alley or Lane).29 German connections were ongoing among American Wurlitzers who often communicated with their German kin.

Rembert or another Wurlitzer, and my father, Raimund, would sometimes stop in Berlin. I have old undated photos showing my father in Berlin sometime in the mid or later 1920s, before his father and my grandfather Howard died in 1928 and before my father left Wurlitzer. My father asserted he was at the outdoor café with Rembert when he identified a red violin as a Stradivarius. In 1960, Farny started in Hűllhorst, a German branch of the Wurlitzer Company called Deutsche Wurlitzer. That division became a reason for Farny, who became President in 1932, to go to Germany often, until his death in 1972. The Gibson Guitar Corporation currently controls the Wurlitzer brand.

Canadian filmmaker Francois Girard’s imaginative speculations about The Mendelssohn and its 1990 Christie’s auction became the narrative for the 1999 Academy Award-winning film, The Red Violin. Literally, even after The Mendelssohn’s surprising resurrection in the 1920s, none of its previous history is known, and remains an intriguing mystery to this day. The movie The Red Violin does not reference Rembert.

In a program for a performance by Pitcairn with The Mendelssohn, Suzanne Marcus Fletcher wrote, “The historic violin was crafted in 1720 by Antonio Stradivari, who lovingly made his instruments in his small shop in Cremona, Italy, centuries ago, and remains the most famous violin maker of all time. Not long after its creation, the instrument appeared to vanish; no one knows where or to whom the violin belonged for more than 200 years, spawning any number of historians, writers, journalists, critics as well as Canadian filmmaker, Francois Girard, to speculate on the violin’s mysterious history. Girard’s imaginative speculations became the narrative for his beloved film, The Red Violin.”

Mme. Fletcher wrote further quoting from the Pitcairn website,30 “Known as the Red Stradivarius and owned by legendary violinist Joseph Joachim, the 1720 Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius would eventually surface in 1920s Berlin. It had been purchased by an heir to the great composer, Felix Mendelssohn. In 1956 it was purchased by a New York industrialist [Rembert Wurlitzer] who kept the instrument in impeccable performance condition. Much of its original burnished red varnish remains on the violin today, and it is thought to be one of the best sounding and most beautiful of Stradivari’s remaining violins. Then on Thanksgiving Day in 1990, the instrument’s fate would once again be triggered when the industrialist [actually another industrialist than Rembert] opted to put the Red Stradivarius on the auction block anonymously at Christie’s of London. While some of the worlds’ most powerful sought to win the coveted instrument, it landed in the hands of then sixteen-year-old American solo violinist, Elizabeth Pitcairn. Pitcairn would remain silent about owning the violin until her rapidly burgeoning solo career brought her into the public eye on international concert stages after nearly three decades of rigorous training by the world’s most esteemed violin teachers.

“Pitcairn would come to view the violin as her life’s most inspiring mentor and friend. Many have said that the violin has finally found its true soul mate in the gifted hands of the young violinist who is the first known solo artist to ever bring it to the great concert halls of the world, and who has made it her goal to share the violin’s magical beauty of sound with people of all ages, professions, and cultures. Today, Pitcairn and the Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin continue to foster one of classical music’s most compelling partnerships.”—by Suzanne Marcus Fletcher.

The story about The Mendelssohn continues with unabated breath. Now the violin is listed with the auction house Tarisio in New York as item #40316.31

The provenance is interesting as cited by Tarisio, and provocative as modified by me, Frederick P. Wurlitzer:

• Lilli von Mendelssohn.
• Franz von Mendelssohn.
• An over 200-year gap in provenance, and so where did the violin go? Who owned it after the Mendelssohns? What happened over the missing 200 years of history is largely speculation.
• Joseph Joachim, the legendary violinist, dates unknown. Source is Pitcairn website.
• Rembert Wurlitzer? (The Mendelssohn or The Red Violin was probably found—in my opinion—sometime in the mid to late 1920s in Berlin by Rembert, before my father, Raimund, left Wurlitzer in 1928, since my father was with Rembert when he found a red violin. Nonetheless, it could have been in the 1930s. Rembert would then have authenticated the red violin, perhaps with the aid of his father Rudolph Henry, who had gone to a violin school in Berlin. Then, I argue, Rembert sold the violin at an unknown date to Hamma. According to Tarisio, Rembert purchased the violin from Hamma in 1956. There could have been a later authentication as well when Rembert sold the violin to Luther Rosenthal and Son sometime after 1956 and certainly before 1963 when Rembert died, unless his wife, Lee, sold it after Rembert’s death to Mr. Rosenthal. Again, provenance is incomplete.)
• Until 1956 Hamma and Co. (Hamma records as to who sold them The Mendelssohn are unavailable. I suggest it was Rembert who found this legendary red violin, authenticated it, and then sold it to Walter Hamma in the mid to late 1920s, but before 1928. Publicity was unimportant. I suggest further that Hamma would never have agreed to buy the violin without Wurlitzer authentication from the world’s foremost experts, Rembert and Rudolph Henry, giving further circumstantial support that Rembert was involved with the violin at a very early point after its resurrection in the 1920s. Unfortunately, there is no known written record today, to the best of my knowledge, of how Hamma obtained the violin, so as to confirm my story.)
• From 1956 Rembert Wurlitzer (Since Rembert Wurlitzer passed away in 1963, Rembert could not have had the violin personally up to 1990 as the Tarisio provenance suggests. Perhaps, his widow Lee, or daughter Marianne, had the violin after Rembert’s death. This inconsistency is just another example of how provenances are often incomplete.)
• Until 1990, Luther Rosenthal and Son
• From 1990, Current Owner Elizabeth Pitcairn (Tarisio does not even list Pitcairn as a current owner.)

Rembert Rudolph Wurlitzer (1904-1963), circa the late 1950s

This violin mystery story continues. How did Hamma and Co. get a red Stradivari violin? Hamma records are unavailable. Neither Elizabeth Pitcairn, the current owner of The Mendelssohn, David Fulton, with his database of Wurlitzer records, or Marianne, daughter of Rembert, were of help. Did Rembert, after discovering a red violin in Berlin many years ago, sell the violin to Hamma in Stuttgart, Germany, as The Mendelssohn, or, after authenticating it, as just another Stradivari violin? It is doubtful there are any other Stradivari violins that are as red as The Mendelssohn, implicating this violin to be the red one Rembert discovered. It is also doubtful that Hamma would have bought a Stradivarius violin without a Rembert and Rudolph Henry authentication. Unfortunately, Tarisio does not have the original authentications that might have helped in confirming provenance further.

More than once, Rembert bought, sold, and then bought again the same violin as, for example, the Baron Knoop of 1715. The psychology that can be added to circumstantial arguments may be that it was easier in 1956 for Rembert to buy a violin he had already authenticated than one not previously authenticated by him. Walter Hamma may also have felt it was easier and more practical, or even that he was morally obligated to sell The Mendelssohn to Rembert in 1956, an eager buyer who had discovered and authenticated it. Rembert or Wurlitzer had the money and was well known for being fair. Stradivari are rarely bought or sold at bargain prices.

The fact that Rembert or Rudolph Henry through the Wurlitzer Company, and then later Rembert on his own through the Rembert Wurlitzer Company, collected, authenticated, and/or sold 135 Stradivari violins is awesome. Many of these violins were on consignment and not owned, and yet there is no other history of collecting Stradivari violins coming close to that record for handling over a hundred Stradivari violins ever. Admittedly, Rembert obviously did not own or handle on consignment all these Stradivari violins at the same time. This fact that Rembert owned and handled an extraordinary number of Stradivari violins qualifies calling Rembert “The Stradivarius Wurlitzer.”

The circumstantial evidence that Rembert discovered The Mendelssohn in the 1920s is very convincing. But if proof surfaces otherwise that The Mendelssohn was not discovered by Rembert sometime in the 1920s, or even in the 1930s, then I would withdraw my suggested change in provenance, although insisting that the story of a red violin found by Rembert as related to me by my father was true and not mere hearsay. Then my question would be, what red Stradivari violin was it that Rembert discovered in the 1920s? But based on color and the circumstantial evidence presented, I feel there is no more likely suspect than The Mendelssohn. That is my conclusion to this mystery story and my ode to Rembert Wurlitzer. Please help me if I am mistaken.

I, a music-loving Wurlitzer, regret I do not own a Stradivarius violin and in particular The Mendelssohn, also known to me as The Red Wurlitzer Mendelssohn. Sadly, I could not afford to purchase it if it were to be on the market again.

Fred Wurlitzer, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
grandson of Howard Eugene Wurlitzer.

This study was carefully reviewed by William Griess, grandson of Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer, and who is a studied expert on Wurlitzer family history, especially when it comes to historical accuracy, and Terry Hathaway, who is familiar with the history of the Wurlitzer family and the Wurlitzer Company and whose specialty is automatic musical instruments made by Wurlitzer and other contemporary companies. Marianne Wurlitzer, daughter of Rembert Wurlitzer, also reviewed this work.

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Appendix 1

Resources / Works Cited

Adam, Paul. The Rainaldi Quartet: Gianni & Gustafest #1 (Giannia & Gustafeste). Felony & Mayhem, LLC, July 2007.

Faber, Tony. Stradivari’s Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection. Random House Publishing Group, 2005.

Fairfield, John H. Known Violin Makers. Virtuoso Publications, Inc., Aug. 1999. self-published 7th edition.
This book is fascinating to me because of citations of early Wurlitzer music instrument makers.

Fétis, Francois-Joseph. Antonio Stradivari – the Celebrated Violin Maker. Newburyport : Dover Publications, 2013.

Gingrich, Arnold. A Thousand Mornings of Music: The Journal of an Obsession with the Violin. Crown Publishers, 1970.

Goodkind, Herbert K. Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari [1644-1737]: Treatises on the Life and Work of the Patriarch of Violinmakers. Estate of Herbert K Goodkind, 1972.
Book contains an inventory of 700 known or recorded Stradivari string instruments, with an index of 3,500 names of past or present Stradivari owners, and photographs of 400 Stradivari instruments with 1,500 views. This is a very pricey book that costs usually $600 U.S. or more. Its index is marvelous and more extensive than the Tarisio records.

Graham, Lloyd. The Story of the Wurlitzer Family and Business. Published by Always Junkin’, 1955.

Griess, William, Grandson of Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer and studied expert on the history of the Wurlitzer family.

Grymes, James A. Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust—Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind's Darkest Hour. Harper Perennial, Aug. 2014.

Hathaway, Terry. “The Wurlitzer Family Grave Sites” MechanicalMusicPress. Mar. 2020. https://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/articles/w_graves.htm

List of Stradivarius instruments. Wikipedia. Mar. 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments

Marchese, John, The Violin Maker: Finding a Centuries-Old Tradition in a Brooklyn Workshop. Harper, Mar. 2007.

Palkovic, Mark. Wurlitzer of Cincinnati: The Name That Means Music to Millions. The History Press, 2015.

Philipsonm, Friedericke, Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Markneukirchen, Germany, Mar. 2020.

Pollens, Steward. Stradivari. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
This is an exhaustively researched book with details about Stradivari manufacturing that may overwhelm readers because of its thoroughness. Beautifully colored photos of some Stradivari are included. Provenances are very sketchy.

Schoenbaum, David. The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument. W. W. Norton & Company, Dec. 2012.

Scolle, John. The Lady of the Casa, The Biography of Helene V.B. Wurlitzer. The Rydal Press, 1959.

Tarisio Fine Instruments and Bows: Auction house inventories. Mar. 2020. https://tarisio.com/

William Griess, grandson of Rudolph Henry, and Marianne Wurlitzer, daughter of Rembert Wurlitzer.

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Appendix 2

About the Authors

Fred Pabst Wurlitzer:

The principal author, Frederick Pabst Wurlitzer, M.D., F.A.C.S. was born in San Francisco, although his four siblings were born in Cincinnati where the family business, The Wurlitzer Music Company, had been located. He was raised drinking Pabst beer while listening to Wurlitzer jukebox music.

Trained at Stanford, the University of Cincinnati Medical School, and UCLA Post-graduate studies in surgery, he did a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Hospital in Texas. For a brief stint, he was an Instructor in Surgery at U.S.C. Medical School in Los Angeles. Later, he practiced as an oncological surgeon, and he is still in old age a board-certified surgeon.

Although he has never published anything about Rembert Wurlitzer or The Wurlitzer Music Company before, he has written numerous medical articles published in over seven different medical journals, including the prestigious Annals of Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Journal of Pediatric Surgery, A.M.A. Archives of Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Southern Medical. Not all medical publications are cited.

After retirement from active surgery in 1988, he volunteered numerous times for doing surgery, usually for a period of about two months each time, in Umtata, South Africa as a C-Section specialist, the Congo, St. Lucia, the Cook Islands as a surgeon for a nation, and about six months in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and elsewhere for a total of close to three years volunteering as a surgeon. Pay was minimal, but psychological rewards great. Because usually there was no specialist care, he did orthopedics, urology, gynecology, and even occasionally thoracic surgery. Often in West Africa, he gave his own anesthesia. His original intent on becoming a surgeon had been to work in Africa like Albert Schweitzer, a childhood hero.

Realizing that he had never worked in the U.S. for the indigent, he obtained a commission as a Commander (O-5) to work briefly in a Public Health hospital serving American Indian nations.

He now lives most of the time in Victoria, BC, Canada with his Canadian wife, Ann, who was born in Quebec. They have known each other well for over 55 years.

For inquires and/or to provide corrected or additional information the author can be reached at

Professional and other Publications of Wurlitzer, FP.
(only a few of numerous medical publications are cited):

Wurlitzer, FP., Ayala, A., Romsdahl. Extraosseous osteogenic sarcoma. Arch Surg 1972;105:691-695.

Wurlitzer, FP., Ayala, A., McBride, C. The problems of diagnosing and treating infiltrating lipomas. Amer Surg 1972;39:240-243.

Wurlitzer, FP., Ballantyne, AJ. Reconstruction of the lower jaw area with a bipedicled delto-pectoral flap and a ticonium prosthesis. Plastic and Reconstructive Surg 1972;49:220-223.

Wurlitzer, FP. Improved technique for radical transthoracic forequarter amputation. Annals Surg 1972;177:467-471.

Wurlitzer, FP. Love to the Trinity. Independently published. Feb. 24, 2020.
Available on Amazon.com. This is one of my books of religious poetry.

Wurlitzer, FP., Mares, AJ., Isaacs, H., et al. Smooth muscle tumors of the stomach in childhood and adolescence. J Ped Surg 1973;8:421-427.

Wurlitzer, FP. Volunteering in West Africa. West J Med 1991;154:730-732.

Wurlitzer, FP., Wilson, E. Aorto-Pulmonary anastomoses using autologous pericardium. Vasc Surg 1972;6:128-132.

Terry Hathaway (Editor and Layout):

The first time I encountered the Wurlitzer name was circa 1944-1945. It happened in the Playland arcade located in the Fun Zone on the Newport Beach peninsula, in Southern California. It was a happy moment. I was a young boy standing awestruck in front of a magnificent machine rising some ten-feet high, which was housed within an imposing dark colored furniture case with gilded embellishments. Inside this majestic structure were marvelously intricate mechanisms brought musically alive by means of a paper music roll situated in an automatic roll changing device that held six multi-tune music rolls. I dropped a thin dime into a coin slot on the front of the case and stood mesmerized as the previously silent mechanisms sprang to life and delightful music filled my eager ears. I knew nothing about this marvelous device, other than it was a gigantic old-fashioned music machine with the name Wurlitzer emblazoned with golden letters above a small access door. A colorful handmade sign read: “This 10-piece Orchestrion is the Grandpappy of the Juke boxes. The Musical Sensation of the Early 1900s.” It would be June of 1971 when I was to take ownership of the mighty Wurlitzer Style 30-A Mandolin PianOrchestra, long an attraction at Playland, and lovingly restore it to like new condition. This PianOrchestra remained in my collection until 1984.

My longstanding appetite for possessing my own orchestrion was finally satisfied In 1954, when I bought my first Wurlitzer orchestrion for $250.00. It was a comparatively small Wurlitzer Bijou Orchestra, only standing some 8-feet tall, it contained a 44-note piano (half a piano is better than none) with a mandolin attachment, a 21-note xylophone, 21 violin pipes, and a snare drum. It featured an automatic roll changer that held six narrow 44-note Pianino rolls. My “little” Bijou Orchestra turned out to be quite rare, one of two currently known to have survived. Because of this, circa 1965, I met Q. David Bowers, who was already an accomplished author in numismatics, and an enthusiastic collector of automatic musical instruments. He was in the finishing stages of writing a new book, Put Another Nickel In, which included a wealth of historical information about Wurlitzer, much of it courtesy of Farny Wurlitzer, whom Dave had interviewed several times.

Dave Bowers found it difficult to believe that Wurlitzer would actually build an orchestrion based upon the musically quite limited 44-note Pianino roll, and so he wanted to meet and see the Bijou Orchestra first-hand, so as to be absolutely certain that such a thing did really exist. Dave and I became friends, and in 1966 I accompanied him on a trip to visit East Coast mechanical music collections, but the highlight was visiting the Wurlitzer factory in North Tonawanda, and meeting Farny Wurlitzer. Farny met us just inside the main factory building and presented us with a cheese wheel of his favorite cheese, whereupon he then escorted us up to his second-floor office. It was a delightful visit and Farny was the epitome of a graciously dignified and cultured gentlemen. He was mentally sharp and could recall historical details without hesitation. His office and old quartered oak furniture looked as though little had changed since the 1920s, and happily so.

In mid-1967 I went into business with Q. David Bowers under the name of Hathaway & Bowers, Inc. Dave was the writer and produced beautiful illustrated catalogues, while I was more concerned with the operation of the facility. At one time we had a staff of thirteen people working in our restoration shop, as well as reception and office personnel. The business boomed, but by 1972 we realized that we had recycled most of the old, large collections and so we decided to sell the remaining stock and go about other pursuits. But in 1975 I found myself still restoring mechanical music machines but now with the added complication of sales in association with Q. David Bowers and the Mekanisk Musik Museum of Denmark. This adventure soon morphed into American International Galleries, Inc., which was located in Irvine, California. I left the business in 1978 to pursue other and yet unfulfilled interests.

In 1997 I created my own web site and found myself writing about mechanical music, mainly about the large Wurlitzer PianOrchestras that were imported up until 1914 (imports stopped due to World War I) from Johann Daniel Philipps & Söhne A.-G., Frankfurter Musikwerke-Fabrik in Frankfurt a. Main, Germany. In 2003 my mechanical music writings were transferred to the newly inaugurated Mechanical Music Press web site, where they remain to this day. My original writing has been greatly augmented by myself and associate Art Reblitz, who is an accomplished author on mechanical music history and who operates a museum quality restoration shop for mechanical music instruments in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Since 2003 I have also assumed the volunteer duties of Webmaster, keeping the site simple and hand coding the many web pages.

For additional information relating to Wurlitzer history you might enjoy visiting the following links:

• Wurlitzer Family Graves: https://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/articles/w_graves.htm
• The Wurlitzer Story: https://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/articles/w_story.htm

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Appendix 3

List of 136 Stradivari Violins Owned or Sold by a Wurlitzer

The first two violins marked with an asterisk * have had their provenances revised. Caveats exist, so bear with me please.

Often Goodkind records did not match Tarisio records. Many times, Tarisio did not give credit to Goodkind listing Wurlitzer as an owner or seller. Many times also, Goodkind descriptions of a violin were not the same as those used by Tarisio, and finally, many times, references listed by Goodkind were not in the less-extensive Tarisio database.

More credence was given to Goodkind than to Tarisio because of the obvious thoroughness and scholarship of Goodkind. Moreover, Goodkind was a personal friend of Rembert, visiting him often. Goodkind had greater access to Rembert than Tarisio auction house.

Although Tarisio had far fewer references to Stradivari violins than Goodkind, I believe a fairly exhaustive list was created by collating my two primary sources, Tarisio and Goodkind, for Stradivari violins collected or sold by a Wurlitzer. That is not to say I am representing the list as conclusive. Repeated meticulous attempts were made to avoid duplications and to be accurate. The Tarisio and Goodkind databases do not identify when a violin was on consignment, except from time to time adding “sold,” suggesting a violin had been sold on consignment or through the Wurlitzer dealer acting as a broker.

When both Tarisio and Goodkind reported a Stradivari violin to have been owned by a Wurlitzer, there should be little doubt in the authenticity of that mutual representation. It remains odd, though, that there should be so many discrepancies. Countless times, Goodkind would list Wurlitzer as an owner or seller, while Tarisio would not confirm this representation. Goodkind listed 102 Stradivari violins handled by Wurlitzer. The Tarisio database added thirty-four more.

This listing of Stradivari violins collected or sold by a Wurlitzer has been very time-consuming. One of the barriers to entry of undertaking this task was the expense of the Goodkind book, running up to a thousand dollars or more. I was fortunate to obtain an autographed Goodkind book of his Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari. Without doubt, the Goodkind book has the most exhaustive list of Stradivari violins of any book published on the subject.

No one, to the best of my knowledge, has ever previously developed such a collated list of Stradivari violins collected, authenticated, or sold by a Wurlitzer—primarily Rembert Wurlitzer.

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Appendix 4

The Red Stradivari Violins

The red violin Rembert identified was not the only red Stradivarius known. Although most Stradivaris do not have a deep red color, those that do may have a more resonant sound. In fact, the red color for a Strad can hold a special allure. But the color red also holds general appeal. From The Strad’s September 2018 issue, “The significance of red in our lives goes back to the Neanderthals, who buried their dead in red ochre. Every human culture has assigned some version of power to this color. In ancient China it was the color of health and prosperity. In the Arab world it signified divine favor and vitality. The Roman Empire was ruled by a class whose name, “coccinati,” literally meant “those who wear red.” It is the color of kings and queens, cardinals and demons.” Although there are many Stradivari, those that are red often are truly special. Rembert may have discovered The Red Mendelssohn.

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Red Diamond Stradivarius of 1732.

Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1732, the “Red Diamond,” labeled, "Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis faciebat Anno 1732." This red violin has not fared as well as the famous Red Mendelssohn. Tragedy struck the Red Diamond violin on January 16, 1952. According to the provenance given on the Tarisio web site, as a violent rainstorm pelted Los Angeles, Sascha Jacobsen, the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, was driving along the Pacific Coast Highway to Pacific Palisades, with the Red Diamond violin in its case beside him. When his car stalled near Santa Monica, water from an overflowing stream flooded around his car and began filling it with water. Trying to escape the surging floodwater, Jacobsen grabbed his violin case and stepped from his car, struggling through the torrent in an attempt to reach higher ground. Unfortunately, the Red Diamond violin was swept from his arms and out to sea, Jacobsen barely escaping to safety, where he stood helplessly watching as the violin case floated away and out of sight.

Miraculously, the very next day a prominent Los Angeles attorney, Frederick H. Sturdy, was walking along the beach of the Bel Air country club when he spotted a violin case stuck in the sand. Inside the case he discovered pieces of a waterlogged violin covered with slime and sand. Then by an amazing coincidence, Frederick Sturdy was a friend of Alfred Wallenstein, an accomplished cellist and the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The following day, when Mr. Sturdy learned of Jacobsen's disaster and the loss of the Red Diamond, he contacted Wallenstein. The violin parts were identified as the lost Red Diamond Stradivari, and were then entrusted to Hans Weisshaar, an outstanding luthier, who over the next nine months restored the appearance and tone of the violin to its former glory. Moreover, the Red Diamond reportedly now sounds better than ever and is known for its remarkable brilliance and clarity of tone. In a bit of irony, in 1971, a few years after Jacobsen's death, the Red Diamond was sold at auction by Sotheby's in London for $67,600, which was far more than it was insured for at the time of its disastrous ocean ordeal.

A little more of the Red Diamond's provenance, beyond that which has been paraphrased above, can be found on the Tarisio web site.32 Regrettably, little other information seems to be available regarding the provenance of the Red Diamond.

Footnotes:

1. Farny Wurlitzer address to the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (“ATOE”): https://www.atos.org/wurlitzer-company

2. Presto-Times, Page 9, May-June, 1933.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wurlitzer

4. Although Wikipedia states Rudolph Wurlitzer founded his company in 1853, that date is incorrect. Rudolph arrived on the Adolphine from Bremen in June, 1853. After working for other people for about three years, he actually started his company in 1856.

5. Graham’s Wurlitzer Family History, Second Generation chapter and New York Herald Tribune Obituary, October 22, 1963.

6. Music Trades, Page 13, December 25, 1926.

7. Wurlitzer Family History by Lloyd Graham 1955 in the Second Generation chapter.

8. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=40316

9. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=40316

10. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=40316

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembert_Wurlitzer_Co.

12. https://newviolinist.com/how-many-stradivarius-violins-are-there/

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments

14. https://wurlitzerklarinetten.de/clarinets/?lang=en

15. Suzanne Marcus Fletcher alleged this in a program for a performance by Pitcairn with The Mendelssohn.

16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Fulton

17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Fulton

18, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignazio_Alessandro_Cozio_di_Salabue

19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Tarisio

20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Tarisio

21. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/luigi-tarisio-part-1/ and https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/luigi-tarisio-part-2/

22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Cannone_Guarnerius

23. Stradivari’s Genius by Toby Faber. Random House Paperback, New York. 2004. Page 194

24. https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/photo-shows-a-dilema-for-a-violin-expert-jay-c-freeman-news-photo/540340080

25. Private E-mail correspondence with Marianne Wurlitzer, daughter of Rembert Wurlitzer, April 2, 2020

26. https://www.asianscientist.com/2016/12/in-the-lab/stradivarius-violin-wood-mineral-preservative/

27. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=40262

28. https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/antonio-stradivari-a-violin-known-as-the-4705238-details.aspx

29. https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Wurlitzergasse

30. http://www.elizabethpitcairn.com/

31. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=40316

32. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=41039

Credits:

Fred P. Wurlitzer, M.D., F.A.C.S., M.B.A., A.B.S., author and grandson of Howard Eugene Wurlitzer.

William Griess, grandson of Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer, who reviewed this study and provided details about the Wurlitzer family history.

Marianne Wurlitzer, daughter of Rembert Wurlitzer, dba Music Antiquarians at: http://www.wurlitzerbruck.com/

Terry Hathaway, editing, composition, and layout of the web page.

Terry Smythe in association with his document digitization work with AMICA.

Photographs:

Fred P. Wurlitzer, M.D., F.A.C.S., author and grandson of Howard Eugene Wurlitzer.

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