Violin, "The Siberian," by Antonio Stradivari, 1709

In the 1920s, Henry Ford purchased several exquisite Italian violins, including this 1709 Stradivari. From the 1680s until the 1730s, Antonio Stradivari was the leading stringed-instrument maker in Cremona, Italy--an important center of stringed instrument production. Ford's 1709 violin was made during Stradivari's "golden era." It got its name--"the Siberian"--because it was once owned by a Russian amateur violinist who lived in Siberia.