This illustration of the ‘Goddard’ Stradivarius violin was published in The Strad, May 1964. The following text is extracted from the article accompanying the photographs:

This Stradivarius was made at the period when – to quote Messers Hill – Stradivarius ‘reached the plentitude of his powers as a craftsman’.

The Strad is in a remarkable state of preservation, being original in all its parts. It is still plentifully covered with varnish, pale golden yellow in colour. The handsome two-piece back of medium figure descending from the joint is of similar material to that used for the head and sides. The table is of fine grained pine. The measurements are : length 14 inches, top bouts 6 5/8 inches, middle 4 ½ inches, bottom, 8 ¼ inches.

There is an interesting feature visible in the illustration of the back, namely the position of the lower of the two small pegs which pass through the back into the top and bottom blocks. It will be noticed that a part of the bottom peg is outside the purfling. In the majority of his violins Stradivarius places these two pegs so that the purfling partly cut through them.

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