Nigel Kennedy’s Viola Heads to Auction

A viola formerly owned by Nigel Kennedy is being offered at auction with an unusually irreverent piece of accompanying documentation: a letter in which the violinist makes his dislike of the instrument abundantly clear.

The lot is listed in Amati’s specialist sale closing on 28 October, with an estimate of £3,000–£5,000. It is catalogued as a twentieth-century viola and is accompanied by a copy of Kennedy’s letter.

The musician’s comments turn the familiar language of celebrity provenance into something closer to comic abuse, invoking unpleasant sounds and unflattering comparisons rather than praising the viola’s tone. The result is a sale whose personality rests as much on its former owner’s wit as on the instrument itself.

An important distinction concerns the label. The viola carries a label naming Joannes Baptista Guadagnini and the year 1777, but the auction catalogue does not authenticate it as an eighteenth-century Guadagnini. Its description as a twentieth-century instrument should guide any account of what is being offered.

The published measurements include a body length of 410mm, with a 227mm stop and a 150mm neck. Those details give prospective buyers more practical information than the deliberately extravagant language of the accompanying letter.

For collectors, the appeal is the documented connection with Kennedy and the character of the material accompanying the lot. For players, the catalogue supplies the starting point for assessing an instrument whose musical qualities cannot be established by either its celebrity association or its label alone.

The auction remains forthcoming, so the estimate is not a realised price and no buyer has yet been identified in the available listing. Whatever the eventual result, the viola has already acquired an unusually colourful sales history through the musician who once owned it.