Jeny Mahon

Well, if anybody wants an example for (currently) $14 USD there's one on Shopgoodwill right now: https://shopgoodwill.com/item/151657324 I like how they usually come with a standard "inventory number" Surely it would have belonged to an estate or perhaps been cataloged by an important shop!

No translation needed!

Thank you so much! I admit I didn't even consider simple archival mylar sleeves That would be perfect. I tried to look up the Conservator of Paris but didn't get the same page you posted, that is very helpful. I heard back from Tarisio, and I'm going to send them scans, they will see if they have a fiddle to match the papers with.

That's for sure! I would assume the good one is gone already or will be sold privately.

Yep, it does look nice. The listing said he had a "violin comedy act" so I'm guessing the other three were some of the stage props. I didn't find much on him except that he passed away about a year ago.

1. Meh 2. Firewood 3. Wall hanger I just want to know what fiddle Janos is holding in the photo. Looks interesting. https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/janos-dubsky-violins-280a-c-adb4e779bf

I saw these on eBay and saved them in my favorites for a few months. The seller offered a discount so I bought them; I just love stuff like this, and it would be very fun to figure out what "VIOLIN" they go with! I did find the family in Ancestry listed in the Netherlands ("Danish West Indies") St. Thomas census, but absolutely zero on the person the fiddle was given to, "Mr. Henwood". I found an Andreas Moser mentioned in a Strad article, and an August Moser in "An Encyclopedia of the Violin", but neither is the same person as far as I can tell. August L. Moeser was listed as a Freemason, United Grand Lodge of England, initiated age 30 in 1857. According to these papers he passed away at age 52, March 3. 1879. On March 16, his widow and children transferred ownership of his fiddle to Mr. Henwood. I'm sure there are much better researchers on M-net that either know or could find out more than I can! I plan to contact Tarisio and send them over if they'd like to keep them for the archives. The pages were folded and are very delicate so they need to be properly conserved. Maybe they know the fiddle these papers belong to or if not, some day it will show up Danish West Indies Census, 1841-1901 - Ancestry.com.pdf England, United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921 - Ancestry.com.pdf

Since it actually is from the 20s it's probably one of those you've seen without a serial number. As for the label, I wouldn't be surprised if the original label was "harvested" and the later replacement label was put in at some point afterword. As @martin swan mentioned, the label is from the WWII timeframe, which would make a date in the 1920s a bit off, unless the person who put the replacement label in knew the probable date of the fiddle from the model and added it. I have MA Juzek that "lost" its original label at some point and had a fake Rinaldi label in it when I bought it. Of course a MA Juzek is identifiable a mile away so it doesn't matter what label it has, but maybe we'll put a nice facsimile label in it some day just for future owners' reference. It's possible this is what happened with the OP's Roth.

I collect a lot of silver jewelry and objects, I will definitely try the egg yolk method next time I need to check! I've never heard of this before, thank you!

Me too!!

I swear I was looking for Native American jewelry and this was one of the auctions in the search. They have a nice bracelet, but it's overpriced Turns out there are a lot of fiddles and bows that are "The Property of a Gentleman" in this auction. I'm just going to leave this here. I don't have $8K or $120K so clearly I'm not bidding on it! https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/130596158_an-important-certified-carlo-antonio-testore-violin @PhilipKT SO many bows!

I think it would impress any of us! Not that it will ever happen but I always wonder what that sort of discovery would entail. What would be fair to the family it belonged to? Give it back? Ask for a finder's fee and sell it at auction? Ask for 50%? Just avoid getting sued? Thankfully I don't think any of us will ever be in the position to deal with ethical dilemmas like that, but it's interesting to think about. Fortunately the family heirlooms I've found at auction and returned are not worth millions, or even hundreds so I just give them back.

I know!! Once it went down to 20 seconds! I was looking at unsold lots and I swear there was a few minutes left. I went to check the Strad and the page stopped loading. I tried the auction link again (twice) and got this: "connect failed: cannot assign requested address". On the third try it worked and the Strad showed completed at 3:15 EST for $13M.

I would think the condition report is sent to the bidders who get pre-approved to bid, which certainly isn't me! Getting down to the wire....