A search to reunite a Tayside violinist with the ‘most beautiful trophy’ she ever won has taken a French twist.
Margaret Jamieson’s daughter tracked down the sculptor responsible for the Mozart bust in France and discovered a high demand for his work among collectors.
She is now making further inquiries in France and believes discovering who made the bronze bust could be the key to cracking the mystery.
Mrs Jamieson (nee Wilson), 85, who was born and brought up in Dundee, won the Waddell Trophy — a bronze statue of Mozart — for the violin solo class at the Glasgow Music Festival in 1951.
She kept it for a year but always treasured it among the many prizes she had won and her family has started a search to find out what became of it after it was sold in the 1960s.
Her daughter Elizabeth Baillie now believes it was made by Adrien Gaudez in France and has found identical Mozart busts made by the same sculptor, which are in high demand.
She found one which was sold by an online auction site in France before discovering another for sale on a vintage collectables site in San Francisco.
Mrs Baillie said: “I have been studying mum’s photo and it does say ‘A. Gaudez – hors concourse’ on the plaque.
“The figure is not exact to the photo however I think it was made by Adrien Gaudez.
“I have been reading about the French sculptor Adrien Gaudez and the information about ‘hors concours’.
“Hors concours means ‘for competition’ meaning that this bronze was submitted or made for a competition or exhibition and it’s on a green marble base which was not originally there.
“Although I feel this is not a perfect match with the photo of the trophy with mum I feel we are maybe on to something.
“I feel the trophy mum had was made by Gaudez because it is the same wording.”
Mrs Baillie’s mother worked in a jute office as a typist and later taught the violin and viola in Angus schools.
Mrs Jamieson was awarded Arbroath Music Festival’s Blue Riband twice on violin in 1951 and 1954, with her future husband, Archie Jamieson, from Kirriemuir, winning it in 1956 for his vocal performance.
She also won a string of awards in the Edinburgh and Perth competitive festivals but the Waddell Trophy captured her imagination.
Mrs Baillie said: “I have been searching as much as time has allowed me to solve this mystery.
“We won’t give up until we find it. I wonder where this beautiful trophy is?
“I would so dearly love to find out.”
Adrien Etienne Gaudez was born in Lyon, France, in 1845.
He was a student of François Jouffroy at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1862.
He exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon in 1864 and and received numerous awards for his work.
He modelled several outdoor monuments for the French citizens and continued working right up to his death in 1902.
Glasgow Music Festival had a Waddell Trophy which was sold as part of a batch to a Mr Alan Marshall which was probably around the 1960s.
The committee has been unable to unearth anything else relevant to trace the trophy.
