Dimensions
129 x 198 x 17mm
A three-hundred-year-old violin is bought at auction in London, an unusual instrument, having instead of the traditional scroll at the top of the neck, the carving of a tiny anthropomorphic head - the precise reproduction of a man's face. The infatuated new owner is plunged almost immediately into the instrument's strange history when he receives a visit from an unsuccessful bidder, who tells the story of his own desire to own the violin. In telling his story he has to tell another story, the history of the violin's last owner, a prodigiously talented young musician studying in thirties Vienna, embroiled in a love/hate relationship with another less talented young player.
