jacobsaunders

I remember once, many years ago going to a music fair. The Firm Paesold had a stand there. They had the entire spectrum of all the price ranges of Celli standing there like a choir. I went and had a look. As far as I could judge, they were all pretty much the same. The cheap ones had plain wood and on the more expensive (up to very expensive, I thought) ones, the wood got progressively more stripey. I frankly couldn’t see what else was different. A representative started coming over to explain to me how wonderful everything was, but I shuffled off in the general direction of away

I did once spend years trying to work out the 19th.C English bows, and actually published an article in the on-line Strad Magazine here https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/333967-a-method-how-to-date-18th-19th-c-english-bows/ Otherwise you are largely on your own. Bows are partly more difficult than violins because they were widely considered just an accessory. The German makers, for instance hardly ever signed (stamped) bows pre Innungsgrundung which was (from memory) in 1888, so you are basically left with a mountain of anonymous bows

Klingenthal is a town, not a maker Geschichte des Geigenbaus in Klingenthal – Wikipedia

I would estimate the violin to be more 1870ish. It is in a fairly fresh condition, which can confuse a little. Also the funky shading on the back always makes me think of Klingenthal rather than Markneukirchen

I feel obliged to resuscitate this old thread on Composers houses near here, since we spent Sunday in St. Florian in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) visiting the celebrations of Anton Bruckners 200th birthday (which was on the 4th Sept). St Florian is dominated by a truly enormous Stift (Monastery) of the Augustiner Chorherrn, where Bruckner was recruited at a young age as (only the third) singer of the then beginning boys choir. There is a very extensive exhibition of his life and work, which differentiates itself from most exhibitions who show lots of photo-copys and furniture that is supposedly like the Maestro had, in that the Monastery has all of the real original stuff that actually belonged to Bruckner. This was largely due to his younger brother, who spent his life at the Monastery and kept everything. There is masses of correspondence (in original) to a variety of themes, but prominently in great detail how he wished to be embalmed and preserved after his death. It is surely testament to the great respect Bruckner was held in, that the people did exactly what he wanted, and rather than shovel him into some dirty hole in the soil, he lies in his ornate tin coffin on a plinth in the crypt beneath the organ, where he can listen when anyone plays his organ, with stacks of skeletons around him like a big audience. Bruckner was also a competent violinist, who gave violin lessons, although his main passion was the organ. I was unable to find out what sort of violin he had. His piano is there in the Stift, and is played every Saturday for a half an hour, although, I thought a bit meanly, the Stift won’t let any visitors play on it. The table upon which he composed is still there. Since his housekeeper wouldn’t let him near his piano with pen and ink, he had to compose there in pencil, then rush to his table to get it down in ink. There is much of his other furniture there (cupboards, chairs, his bed) only the plaster bust of Richard Wagner is a replacement, since the original got broken. He was also famously upset by the then leading Viennese music critic Hanslick, who was very rude about his music, and he even complained to the Kaiser about it. Obviously the self assured Viennese critic wasn’t about to take some county bumpkin seriously. Lying there listening to his organ, I think Bruckner had the last laugh though. Pictures: - (one of the) inneren courtyards -a staircase -the ceiling of that stircase -Bruckners coffin in the crypt wit all the skeletons -one of the corridors

once bitten, twice shy

The famous “carved to the bitter end” means how far into the throat the fluting goes (for instance with Mittenwald violins), and has nothing to do with how far some masochist dope has sawn the throat

Whenever anybody titles a thread “Definitely not the usual” one can with certainty scroll down and view a picture of a “usual”, even should it have some American optional extras

I’m afraid cornerblockolgy isn’t much help there

Drescher cites Aschauers personal manuscript CV from the VDG. He learnt in Mittenwald from 1906 until 1910, then worked for Wilfer in Leipzig, then briefly for Gärtner in Stuttgart. Then he did hid Meisterprüfung in Stuttgart, 1922 and became director of the Geigenbauschule in Mittenwald in the same year. He worked as Violin School director until his retirement in 1957. He then made (?)violins on his own account until 1969, which he largely sold via his son Ludwig who had moved to America, which I suppose explains why they do not appear here. In Europe, they sold the student violins (fairly cheaply) to the trade. I presume these “Aschauer” fiddles are the American equivalent

I would tipp on some Gypsy workshop in Budapest (communist period)

There used to be a frequent maestronet poster called Skiing Fiddler, who hasn't posted for years (I hope he’s all right). He always tried to attribute fiddles by trying to work out if it were Strad, Amati, Maginni, or Stainer Model (apparently there is nothing else) and inevitably came out with the most ridiculous conclusions. Since Stainer was an Amati pupil, and the earlier Stainers are difficult to distinguish from Amati, there is always a certain awkward comic aspect about people pontificating if something is a Stainer or an Amati “model”. If anything I would think that the OP VSO could be more accurately described as a dogs dinner model

A more plausible hypothesis would be that your VSO started life as a modest tradey instrument, that some nut case got hold of and sanded the varnish off, and generally revved up with the success that it landed in one of James’ sales as ”a violin, ten quid”. I don’t think anyone outside of Ann Arbor will be in danger of confusing it with a Strad

I'm sure that it will be facinating to see how things are in Shanghai, and would wait until November

That looks heavily revarnished & reworked. Also some pillock has re-cut the f holes, so that your question is redundant. Dustbin.