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Presented to Yehudi Menuhin, Colmar Festival

Alain Carbonare, 1993

From the Mirecourt workshop to the stage of the Colmar Festival.

Paysage staged presentation based on photographs of the Carbonare 1993
Editorial staging based on the original photographs of the instrument
Maker
Alain Carbonare
Year
1993
Made in
Mirecourt

In 1993, Alain Carbonare made a violin in Mirecourt that Vladimir Spivakov presented to Yehudi Menuhin at the Colmar Festival. Menuhin played it in public the same day.

A handwritten letter dated 14 July 1993 accompanies this account. Photographs and press reports assembled in the brochure preserve further traces of the occasion.

The violin subsequently appeared as lot 33 in The Menuhin Collection, the Sotheby’s sale held in London on 16 November 1999. This records one stage in its history; it is not, by itself, a complete chain of provenance.

Now preserved in Israel according to the collection’s records, the instrument opens a chapter of L’Édifice Éternel: passing on an object, a history and an opportunity to play.

Document · 14 July 1993

A few hours after playing the violin

Presented to Yehudi Menuhin by Vladimir Spivakov at the Colmar Festival, the violin was played publicly by Menuhin that same day. His handwritten letter to Alain Carbonare, dated 14 July 1993, is historical evidence of that encounter and of the instrument—not a present-day endorsement of the foundation.

« Merci pour ce beau violon dont j’ai fait la connaissance il y a quelques heures »

Yehudi Menuhin, letter to Alain Carbonare · 14 July 1993

Documented dates

  1. 1993Made in Mirecourt
  2. 14 July 1993Letter from Yehudi Menuhin
  3. 16 November 1999Sotheby’s, London — lot 33

The instrument and its archives

The original photograph opens the gallery. The documents that follow trace the 1993 encounter and the violin’s appearance in the 1999 Sotheby’s catalogue. Select an image to view it in full.

Original photograph of the violin made by Alain Carbonare in Mirecourt in 1993. The instrument is shown on its original textile background, without documentary cut-out.
Signed group photograph including Yehudi Menuhin and Alain Carbonare, from the violin maker’s archives. The other people are not identified because no source confirms their names.
Sotheby’s, The Menuhin Collection, London, 16 November 1999: Alain Carbonare’s violin appears as lot 33. The page also shows an adjacent instrument, which must not be attributed to Carbonare.
Handwritten letter from Yehudi Menuhin to Alain Carbonare, dated 14 July 1993 (Book 1, p. 4). Menuhin writes: “Merci pour ce beau violon dont j’ai fait la connaissance il y a quelques heures” (“Thank you for this beautiful violin, which I first encountered a few hours ago”).
Workshop document devoted to the 1993 Carbonare violin and its encounter with Yehudi Menuhin, preserved in Alain Carbonare’s archives.

Sources and documents

Meet the maker →Discuss a Carbonare instrument →