Violin by Baltazar Dankwart I from 1602.One of the oldest, most famous and most beautifull Polish violin |
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| Baltazar Dankwart born in the
first half of the 16th century, began the violin lineage of Dankwarts. He was one of the first of violin-makers in Poland. He died probably in 1622 in Vilnius(Panufnik) or 1651 (Z.Szulc and A.Plucinski). Today we don't know very much about his parentage and life today. We don't know who was his teacher and his master. His name suggests non-Polish parentage; in archies we can find his name spelled: Danquart. Fixing of the correct dates is very difficult because of the enigmatic residence of B. Dankwart in Vilnius). It is estimated that he was learning in Cracov and Mateusz Dobrucki (~1550-1602) or Marcin Groblicz I was his master (Dankwart was about 15 years younger than them). Assuredly, he worked as a royal luthier with Dobrucki in Cracov, and after the death of Zygmunt August, the king of Poland (1572) he went to Vilnius, where he provided orchestras of court with instruments (among other things Radziwiłł’s court). Thanks to his artistic talent and his glory Baltazar Dankwart was appointed the violin-maker of Zygmunt III Waza - the king of Poland. |
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There is
the 404th anniversary of this famous violin this year. It was made by Baltazar Dankwart I in 1602 in Vilnius in Poland (present day in Lituania). This violin has got an interesting history; In 19th century Jadwiga Siedlecka from Radość near Warsaw was the owner this violin. By the end of the Nazi occupation the instrument was stolen from the National Museum in Warsaw. In 1946 it has been found in Gdańsk without identity card and with modified sound-holes. The original shape was restored with the help of the photographic documentation base the violin-maker Jozef Swirek. The next owner of violin was Benedykt Tyszkiewicz. From 1949 the violin is kept in the Museum of Instruments in Poznań, Poland. |
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