Since the death of the son of the last purchaser in 2002, the instrument has been entombed in the vaults of Christie's.Its condition is said to be remarkable, having sustained a crack on either side of its front at some point before it was first acquired by the Hills. One of the sons Arthur, recorded the moment he first saw it in his diary: "Silvestre arrived this morning from Paris bringing with him the Strad violin that he and Alfred and I had been corresponding about. It is one of the handsomest I have ever seen, and the figure of the wood and the colour of the varnish are both of the most magnificent description ..."Six months later, however, it was sold again, this time to Baron Knoop, the son of a textile magnate from Estonia. The Baron held the Viotti for a few years before selling it back to the Hills. It returned to England in 1897, in the care of WE Hill and Sons, the family company that dominated the world trade in violins for nearly two centuries. Viotti was well aware of its worth - even commissioning a replica of another Stradivarius to pass off as the real thing.In France, the Viotti was admired and highly sought after among the instrument-makers of the time, most notably Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. The first biography of Stradivari appeared in the middle of the century by Fran?s Fetis.

It sought to explain the unparalleled quality of his instruments - and it contained a list of the best examples, placing the Viotti third.The instrument itself was to begin an unsettled period. He fled to Hamburg where he concentrated on composition but returned to London in 1801, making the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron.Meanwhile, Viotti's entrepreneurial spirit had remained undimmed and he began a fresh career as a wine merchant. In the same year he played his final concerts with the Stradivarius in Paris and at Hanover Square in London. It was the last time the public was ever to hear the father of the modern violin - or anyone else - playing this most celebrated of instruments. In a prescient nod to what was to happen two centuries later, Viotti stated in his will that the instrument should be sold to repay the debts he owed to his London friends, the Chinnerys, his wine business having collapsed in failure.

The Viotti Stradivarius was sold in Paris for 3,816 francs- the equivalent of £10,000 today. During his lifetime the instrument had increased 25-fold in value. In the claustrophobic, suspicious atmosphere of the day he was denounced for his "Jacobin sympathies". A review in the Morning Chronicle of 1793 demonstrates the awe in which he was held "Viotti, it is true ... astonishes the hearer; but he does something infinitely better - he awakens emotion, gives a soul to sound and leaves the persons captive," it said.In the middle of the decade he came into contact with Joseph Haydn and performed at venues across Britain - at Bath, Manchester and Edinburgh. But Viotti was once again to fall victim to the political tensions of the time.