Purchased 1886 at Cincinnati Industrial Exhibition by Frank Tuchfarber, Cincinnati;[1] mortgaged and forfeited 1912 to Atlas National Bank, Cincinnati;[2] sold to William M. Haas, Cincinnati; offered c. 1934-1937 in lieu of a loan payment to Charles Finn Williams [d. 1952], Cincinnati;[3] his wife, Elizabeth R. Williams, Cincinnati; transferred c. 1955-1957 to her son, William J. Williams, Cincinnati; sold 1990 to (James Maroney, New York); purchased 1993 by NGA. [1] See "The Art Gallery," _Cincinnati Commercial Gazette_, 16 September 1886, for the information that Harnett's painting "sold as soon as it was unpacked [in Cincinnati], and at his own price." Alfred Frankenstein (_After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters 1870-1900_, rev. ed., Berkeley, California, 1969: 78) names Tuchfarber as the original purchaser and disputes the legend that arose in the early twentieth century ("Found -- A Celebrated American painting," _Mansfield News Journal_ [Ohio], 3 November 1934) of the painting having been previously purchased by Edward Stokes, a New York hotelier. When _The Old Violin_ was owned by William Haas, however, it did hang in a lodging house, the Cincinnati Parkview Hotel. [2] The original loan agreement, with _The Old Violin_ as collateral, is in NGA curatorial files. [3] Two statements by William J. Williams, 17 May 1990 and 15 March 1993, in NGA curatorial files, give provenance information.