Ron1

When an accomplished violinist refers to their instrument as a "fiddle", it is an elitist and egotistical act and an attempt to render themselves more special. It's not unlike the emperor without clothes- no one will dare question them because they have the 'right' to use the term. Even more silly (and elitist and egotistical), is when they use the term "axe" when referring to their instruments.

I have an old Norwegian box that has this type of "knife cut" inscription on the inside of the lid, which has allowed me to determine the probable maker of the box from the initials & date (1830). It was a wedding gift from an Uncle of my great-great-grandmother when she was married in 1830.

$2,000 is not a reasonable price for this instrument.

The second, higher number on his label (#7275 on the op's instrument) was his model number of the instrument.

I think the name may be Wilhelms rather than Wilhelmj.

I visited Jim Van Lanen a number of years ago in Two Rivers to see and photograph his 1923 Reindahl violin. He also showed me other violins he had, but I don't remember who the makers were.

I had Joseph Joachim in mind...

Are those initials "J J" on the last set? Hmm

There seems to be two separate questions/topics going on here- one regarding the varnish, and another regarding whether or not Holmdale was even the maker. A couple posts, including mine, suggested he may not have been the maker, unless someone could point to other instruments he had made. Then Michael posted the above, and no one has even mentioned this apparent "other" violin with his actual label. Can we see more of this instrument for comparison? Does it have similarities to the OP's violin? I think this could go a long way toward answering whether or not Holmdale was the maker.

A quick search doesn't bring up anything else re violins in conjunction with Thurston Holmdale or Torsten Holmdahl. He is always listed as an "artist" or "scenic artist", never as a "violin maker". Unless others have knowledge of other instruments by him, I would be very skeptical that he was the maker of this violin. In 1918 he was still signing documents, etc. using the original spelling of his name (Torsten Holmdahl), and it seems that if he was the maker he would have used that spelling rather than the "Americanized" version. I also noted his documented handwriting and written numbers at the time were very neatly executed, as might be expected of an artist, and in contrast to the rather crudely made inscription inside the violin, although it is certainly possible someone else added the inscription later. At any rate, someone with the ability to produce an instrument like this, would surely have made others.

I visited the Wons atelier on several occasions back, I believe, in the sixties. It was located, as previously pointed out, in a second floor space on State Street in Madison, WI. This space later became the 'upstairs' of the "Upstairs-Downstairs cafe".

I agree it looks like E WEINAR

No, I worked with a very capable digital sculptor in Bucharest, Romania. Super easy to work with, very reasonable pricing, and she's fluent in english. She worked from photos I sent her of my violin.

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