The Laub–Petschnikoff Stradivarius is an antique violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona (1644–1737), which is variously dated as from 1722[citation needed] and 1727.
[2] In the early 1960s, the Laub–Petschnikoff was acquired by Rembert Wurlitzer, a New York City dealer of fine string instruments.
It was then purchased by Canadian philanthropist J. W. McConnell,[citation needed] who donated the instrument to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 1961 for use by the concertmaster, then Calvin Sieb.
[3] Yehudi Menuhin performed with it at a concert in Montreal in 1963, after his own violin broke a string.
[2] In 1968, Jacob Siskind described the violin as an "ideal" orchestral instrument but considered it to lack a "large enough or sufficiently penetrating sound" when playing the solo part in a concerto, as its sound "blends too easily with that of the orchestra and is often lost completely.