Rembert Wurlitzer Co.

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Rembert Wurlitzer Co. was a leading New York City firm that specialized in fine musical instruments and bows. Rembert Rudolph Wurlitzer, a renowned violin expert and grandson of Cincinnati’s Wurlitzer founder, left his family firm in 1949 to start Manhattan’s Rembert Wurlitzer Co. The company bought, sold, authenticated, and restored many instruments and bows and supplied instruments to famous players such as Fritz Kreisler, David Oistrakh, and Isaac Stern. It built a first-class workshop with luthier Simone Fernando Sacconi and his pupil Dario D’Attilli, training many top American repairers, and Sacconi later published works on Stradivari’s methods. The collection grew to include important instruments by Stradivari, Guarneri, Montagnana, Serafin, Storioni, Ruggeri, Guadagnini, Lupot, and Vuillaume, as well as a fine bow collection by Tourte, Peccatte, Kittel, Persoit and others. A key highlight was the Henry Hottinger Collection, acquired in 1967, consisting of about 30 violins aimed at representing major Cremonese masters and periods; an illustrated catalogue was published and the instruments were later dispersed worldwide after the collection’s sale to Rembert Wurlitzer Co.