'Extraordinary' Einstein violin could fetch £300k

The auctioneers describe the violin as "exceptionally historic"

A violin once owned by one of the world's most famous scientists is expected to fetch up to £300,000 when it is sold at auction in Gloucestershire.

The 1894 instrument is one of several items once owned by Albert Einstein that are set to go under the hammer at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in South Cerney, on 8 October.

Also being sold are a bicycle saddle, the saddle order form and a philosophy book which Einstein gave to a friend in 1932.

Senior auctioneer and historical memorabilia specialist Chris Albury said they are thrilled to be selling the "extraordinary historical artefacts".

The full-size Zunterer violin is believed to be the first Einstein bought himself.

All the items up for auction were given to his good friend and physicist colleague Max von Laue in late 1932.

Shortly afterwards Einstein fled to America to escape the rise of antisemitism and Nazism in Germany.

Twenty years later, Max von Laue gifted them to an acquaintance and Einstein fan, Margarete Hommrich, and it is her great-great granddaughter that has now put them up for sale.

'Hair-raising'

"We are thrilled to be handling these extraordinary historical artefacts," said Mr Albury.

"When it arrived for analysis and valuation the violin's sound post and bridge were both detached and it had not been played for a very long time.

"This was easily rectified professionally and a short performance with it can be heard on our website.

"We know that Einstein named all his violins 'Lina', so to see this etched onto the back panel was hair-raising."

It is thought that this particular violin would have been played by Einstein from his later teens and through his early adult life, most notably when he published his important papers on relativity in 1905 and 1915.

Another violin once owned by Einstein, which was gifted to him when he arrived in the United States in 1933, was sold at auction for $516,500 (£370,000) in New York in 2018.