Cremona Maestro Violin Hellier Edition

At the top of Cremona’s Maestro Series is a recreation of the legendary “Hellier” Strad. The “Hellier” is the most famous of Antonio Stradivari’s inlaid violins. Originally purchased by Sir Samuel Hellier in the early 18th century directly from the Master, the instrument eventually passed to the ownership of Mr. H.E. Morriss. Mr. Morriss was the owner and editor of The North China Daily News, an English language newspaper published in Shanghai prior to World War II. In the late 1930s, Mr. Morriss returned for a visit to England and brought the “Hellier” with him. Prior to his return to China in 1939, England’s premier violin shop, W.E. Hill & Sons, warned Morriss against bringing the violin back to the Far East due to the instability of the times: Shanghai had fallen into Japanese hands. After the surrender of the Japanese Army in 1945, civil war continued in China. Morriss saw all of his possessions confiscated by the revolutionary functionaries of Mao Zedong and put on display a