Help to identify a Stradivarius violin origin or copy?

November 29, 2016 at 09:52 PM · I don't give you much hope...

Amnon Weinstein is in Tel Aviv. A web search will tell you all that you need to know about him and how to find him.

Good Luck.

November 29, 2016 at 10:16 PM · It would be nice to think that some of the 400+ missing Strads are lying around in folk's attics across Europe..

November 29, 2016 at 10:21 PM · Here is an old article on the topic... it is most likely some kind of copy, but a luthier will know very quickly; they are trained to identify violins very well.

November 29, 2016 at 10:41 PM · Adrian, i would settle for finding just one of those 400 missing Strads at a local yard sale.

November 30, 2016 at 03:52 AM · Here is an interesting blog post on how to identify an authentic label. Your label does not look authentic to me but I am not an expert.

https://www.skinnerinc.com/news/blog/violin-appraiser-how-to-identify-violin-label/

November 30, 2016 at 04:21 AM · Strad or not, please put a soft cloth underneath the tail-piece to protect the top plate. Alternatively, remove all strings and tail-piece, if there is no bridge.

November 30, 2016 at 06:27 PM · One doesn't need to be a real expert to see that this violin is not a Strad.

The label you are showing doesn't match any of the known labels of Stradivari:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Violin-2164/2012/5/stradivarius-violin-1.htm

The quality of the spruce top with it's very wide irregular grain is mediocre at best - not something you would ever see on a Strad.

Varnish/ground is the wrong colour but that could be the picture.

Here a picture of the same area in a real Strad:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Music/viores.html#c2

Note that the Strad's lower wing of the f hole is a bit concave called "fluting". All Stradivari violins have this feature. see also:

http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/248693-lower-wing-f-hole-concavity/

This area is not visible on your violin's picture but you can check for it: it would be very surprising if your violin had that.

November 30, 2016 at 07:02 PM · Well, worth a try.

Then there are also all the fractionals that he made in 1721 while on holiday in Cezechoslovakia!

December 1, 2016 at 12:16 AM · If the price tag shows a number with two or three digits, it's not a Strad. Seven or eight digits, Strad.

December 1, 2016 at 01:15 AM · I have one I'll sell you for 2 million, I guess its a Strad then????

December 1, 2016 at 10:58 AM · Hey, don't listen to Lyndon. I have a Strad, 5.3 million, now that's a certificate of authenticity. Deal?

December 1, 2016 at 10:55 PM · I recently read "The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument." David Schoenbaum spends a lot of time discussing the whole question of determining the provenance of instruments. Unfortunately, there isn't much to assure anyone that the "Strad" was actually made in the workshop of the famous luthier.

My personal take away is that there are musicians who care more about how the instrument sounds and plays. Then there are collectors who care about provenance because they intend to someday sell it to somebody else.

To be sure, the great violins are great. Unfortunately blind sound tests (Schoenbaum has a beautiful description of the ultimate sound test) tell us that a lot of modern violins have better sounds than those of violins with all the required paperwork.

Unfortunately, most folks think that their attic strad is going to make them rich. Mine is a "Mittenwald-Strad" (the label actually says made in Germany even though it claims to be a Strad) that my wife's Great Grandfather brought to the USA from Sweden in the late 1800's. I've had it restored and adjusted and it plays quite well. Regardless of the lack of "value" I love the instrument - intarsia and all.

December 1, 2016 at 11:58 PM · Well, there is an unfortunate intersection between players and collectors -- they are both buying and selling instruments in the same market.

Even if you only care about an instrument's playing qualities, the price that you buy it at will be determined not only by its worth to a player, but its worth to a collector. Similarly, if you should someday want to sell it, its provenance is going to determine what you could sell it for, regardless of whether you're selling to a player or collector.

(This is obviously applicable only to instruments that actually have a known maker, as opposed to the anonymous workshop instruments that litter attics.)

December 2, 2016 at 10:13 PM · Lydia, et al.,

Lydia makes a solid point on purchasing antique instruments. Of course the provenance gets muddy very fast, particularly if the maker is "Famous."

On the other hand there are some very good living luthiers who make excellent instruments. Buy from them and there is no question about provenance and the collectors will wait till the 22nd Century before they show the slightest interest in them. In the meantime you have the instrument that you want at a reasonable price not inflated because of "greatness."

I live in NJ and was witness (as a subscriber to the NJSO) to the debacle of the "Golden Age Collection" that the NJSO purchased. They got their clock-cleaned on the deal and a lot of donors (myself included) were not happy with their financial stewardship.

As I violinist I was offended at how the Maestro and board members dismissed the personal instruments of the members of the orchestra as part of their campaign to make the purchase. Some of the musicians are personal friends and they love their personal instruments and hated to have them publically dismissed at concerts when the leaders were begging for donations.

December 3, 2016 at 05:55 AM · If you buy directly from the maker, sure, there's no question of provenance, but you also don't really know how what you're getting will evolve. As far as I know, though, there are now fakes of contemporary makers that are circulating.

Collectors (and players) have already bid up the price of some living makers, like Zygmuntowicz. And a maker doesn't have to be long dead for the prices of his instruments to escalate -- as far as I know, the price of a Peresson, for instance, went up significantly in the decade after his death.

Excellent living makers aren't cheap, either. You can easily buy a "modern" Italian (turn-of-the-20th century) for the cost of one of Florian Leonhard's violins, for instance.