kolovrat

The price has reached such heights due to the fact that the photos this particular violin highly resemble the work of Hornsteiner family, possibly a Matthias Hornsteiner. It appears to be a very good instrument.

Crack seems to be the only choice of controlled substance in Alabama, but in Brewton, it takes on a whole new meaning!

I am into blonds, mostly

Yost System (originally for violin)

Ahem, a post-Apocalyptic scenario where most of the intelligent life has vanished with only a few spread out offspring of Sarah Palin-like breeders roaming the plains and killing each other....Violins will be used as canoe paddles at the best!

The Bellarosa looks rather genuine. I've owned 2 in the past and the resemblance is uncanny! The other fiddle appear even more interesting. Quite obviously, the seller doesn't give a rat about this whole thing. Why bother selling it then?

Good question Ed! I believe the sound has to do with the overall architecture of the instrument with its dome-shaped top and protruding back....

One just sold on Ebay for over $2K, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...me=STRK:MEDW:IT&ih=024

I don't think the scroll can be qualified as 'elegant', but nonetheless it looks more like the work of a master.

Before finding this viola I was a stern believer that size matters. With that said, I was aware of some older Italian violas measuring in-betweein 15 and 16 inches with a powerful, robust and big sound. The instrument pictured below had redefined my beliefs with regards to viola and size. Measuring at 15 and 7/8 inches, the viola has an extraordinarily large and powerful tone found mostly in instruments measuring at 16 and 1/2 inches. The rib hight is fairly small much like the arching. Another puzzling matter was this strange amateurish model and overall unevenness of execution. All with the exception of scroll and refined craftsmanship inside points out to an amateur attempting at making and instrument. BUT WHAT A GREAT SOUND!!!

...and going back to the discussion of instruments. I've played on a great number of violins from various countries. In general, I have noticed that a majority of Italian instruments from old ages to 1980s have a particular timbre that is somewhat unifying and categorizing. By all means, not all Italians are excellent, yet, there is this interesting quality of sound that is common to many. Now, the new Italian instruments are rather disappointing from my perspective. For starters, I am not a big fan of cookie-cutter strado-guarnerian models common to the makers of today. Secondly, the tone of these is no different than that of a modern German or any other fiddle (with the exception of few makers).

Interesting violin. My first guess at the origin would be England, but something like this could have came out of 18th century Saxon shop. Why? The f-hole position is not typical of English makers who loved to locate those in close proximity. On this violin, the f-holes are rather far apart. I don't believe that the scroll is original to the body; many good factory German violins of the early 20th century had scrolls of such design and proportions.

Linings that go around corner blocks were used by Italian, English, American and Hungarian Schools of violin making. With regards to Italian fiddles, only the Bolognese examples seem to have such design. With that said, certain odd makers out of Sicily or some other locality used to experiment with such.

Well, 'tis the time again for Tarisio's lesser instruments. I've browsed through the violins, but didn't find anything too exciting. Have any of the forum readers had gone to the preview?