Guido
-
Posts
1272 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Downloads
Gallery
Articles
Store
Posts posted by Guido
-
-
3 hours ago, nicolaus vii said:
I bought a violin.
Is there anyone who'll explain me ... how valuable it is?
Why would you think it is worth anything other then what you paid for it? It's a pretty robust definition of value.
-
8 hours ago, fiddlecollector said:
Looks like a violin bow,the head height is usually to the top of the stick. The head mortice cut out in the original tip plate was probably curved into the top (toward tip ,widest points) corners originally,so the hair mortice would have been slightly wider than at present.
I have two F Pecatte bows here that would be classed as violin bows or particularly the exotic one ,heavy violin bow. : They werent really standardized as such back then and ive never personally had a F Peccatte bow with a frog as long as 47.8mm as Brad quoted from L'archet.
The top exotic wood stick is 47gms for the stick alone and the lower ironwood stick is 43 gms . Both bow buttons/screws weigh exactly 4.6 gms. the exotic bow frog weighs 8.8 gms and the ironwood one 8.5 gms.
the frogs measure exotic woodstick one: 45.71 x 20.5 x12.95 and the ironwood one : 44.70x 20.22x12.15.
The head heights including tip plates are exotic one 23.53 and ironwood one 23.15.
Thanks a million. This should settle it. My head height is even a little shy of 23mm.
What seems light are your frogs; and between those and a tinsel or silk lapping, the weight estimate for my bow can easily come down from over 70g to under 65g :-)
Only other thing, I was hoping @martin swan might chime in on dimensions/ measurements given he has an iron wood viola example on offer.
-
On 11/13/2024 at 11:27 PM, fiddlecollector said:
He made a lot of bows that could be considered heavy violin or light viola bows. What is the head height??? With or without tip plate?
Not sure how the measurement of head height is defined. I show a photo of how I measured it to the underside of the stick to come to about 16mm.
Also, I attach a photo of comparing the mortice to an average violin bow (right).
Still not sure if I should fit a violin or a viola frog to this stick. Or find a viola frog with a relatively narrow hair band.
-
On 11/13/2024 at 9:35 PM, Brad Dorsey said:
According to "L'Archet," the heights of his violin bow frogs are 20 to 20.5 millimeters, and the heights of his viola bow frogs are 21.5 to 22.5 millimeters; the lengths of his violin bow frogs are 44.5 to 46.2 millimeters, and the lengths of his viola bow frogs are 47.8 millimeters. The widths are not given.
Great info, thanks. Have had this book on my wish list for far too long...
-
Did F Peccatte make much of a difference between violin and viola bows when it comes to the frog?
I.e. are the viola frogs bigger, wider, longer, higher, or none of that?
I'm asking because I have a bare iron wood stick (45g) that'll be about 70g as a complete bow, but the head mortice is fairly narrow and will probably only want to have a violin amount of hair. Seems to call for a violin size frog...?
-
Isn't it obvious?
It holds a liquor bottle (the top held by the little box next to the sound post).
It's also called a vibrato modulator.
Or a Brahms fuel tank.
-
10 minutes ago, elise2000 said:
I have an old hill and son’s chin rest catalogue. Can post photos of it if of any interest?
That would be awesome!
-
Not all but some makers of the Kloz family have what seems to be a centre notch in the far side pegbox wall. See first photo.
I always thought this had to do with some method of neck alignment during construction... anyone know details?
Likewise, Degani's hollow fingerboard (and nut) allowing to peer though (or insert a rod)... anyone know what he actually did there?
And finally, the second picture, a notch in a place I have never seen before. Maybe it's just damage, maybe it's intentional. Anyone seen that before?
-
On 6/8/2018 at 8:11 AM, J.DiLisio said:
Those are really interesting designs. I’d be interested to find out if they were more experimental one-off’s or produced on a larger scale.
No2 and No4 designs are often encountered with French trade instruments and I think they can be seen in old JTL catalogues, too. Not sure, maybe they go back to the Hills in design. Or maybe the OP2&4 aren't even Hill and just got a Hill clamp.
Here is a fun example of No4 that integrates the idea of a shoulder rest.
-
I was wondering if there is any possibility that this is the original face as it is.
-
The violin is being offered as an authentic SB Fendt, at about 80% discount vs greedy dealer retail.
Doesn't that sound like an attractive proposition?
-
What they said. And:
The wide mortise in the handle looks French. The small mortise in the head looks cheap.
Fittings are often easier to tell apart than bare sticks. Show them if you have them.
-
13 hours ago, JohnnyM said:
Hopefully this adds to the history of David!!Maybe you can add some pictures?
-
Well, I better get busy and revisit my inventory, tripling price tags.
-
8 hours ago, martin swan said:
according to which a fine Nicolo Amati (grand pattern) would be between 1.3 and 3.7 million dollars.
A good gold Sartory is a pretty small add-on at this price range!
I don’t think 1.5M will get you a mint Nicolo Amati unless it’s a small pattern.
That's a remarkable difference to the latest Fuchs Taxe (2017), which lists the small pattern at EUR160k-280k; and the large pattern at EUR400k-800k; or USD436k-873k at today's rates.
-
-
3 hours ago, Dr. Mark said:
Is/Was it standard practice to chop off the corner block short towards the C-bout, glue in the C lining, then glue an extension strip back onto the block and over the lining, and shape it? That seems to be how it was done .
Looking at the photo above I can see what you mean. But the blocks are of one piece - there is no joint running down the surface facing the inside of the violin. In the photo above there is also a line continuing in the direction of the lining. I think they might be marking traces for the cut-out.
-
2 hours ago, Andreas Preuss said:
Otherwise violin makers of Canada seem to me a completely white map.
Don't you think it could be English? I'm starting to like that idea.
Btw, I checked and pretty much excluded Australia.
-
1 hour ago, Andreas Preuss said:
With this kind of instrument I always try the exclusion method to narrow down possibilities:
Not French or German or a maker trained there.
in 1937 there was not abundant photo material about Stradivaris instruments available, so this maker had gathered some material: he knew that Strad didn’t use spruce for blocks and linings, he knew that linings were inserted in the blocks (just not exactly the way how), he even knew that Strads purfling covered the pins half and were joined right there on a45 angle. This excludes for me all the pure amateur makers of that period. However certain features look like rather ‘sanded down’ style of work hinting to a quick making method. Also the f holes seem to be set rather low.(?)
Having completed 112 instruments by 1937 I’d place the birth year roughly between 1860 and 1890.
The maker didn’t find it either necessary to sign his instrument or wasn’t allowed to do it. I would personally opt for the first and think that he was a single maker in a smaller township providing the area with instruments.
i am also wondering why the maker found it necessary to write under the fingerboard the number and model. There is a chance that the maker worked simultaneously on at least two instruments and he didn’t want to mix up fingerboards for them.
One might also wonder why he mentioned Strad copy. The fact that you couldn’t find comparable instruments is probably due to the fact that he didn’t make exclusively Strad copies. (Maybe mostly Guarneri?)
The linings from the bouts seem to be inserted pointed in the corner blocks which is indeed a quite unusual feature and could give a final clue.
Checking on the apocryphal inscription starting with ‘B’ I found in Weinbergs book Dr. Wallace Belt where data approximately matches: born in 1857, became a professional maker in 1903, started making after WW 1 in Dodge Center completing with machine aid c. 150 violins. Might worth a shot to find comparable instruments.
Otherwise violin makers of Canada seem to me a completely white map.
Thanks Andreas. I love that kind of reasoning. I find it fun and I'll end up learning something new and unexpected in some otherwise useless rabbit hole. I too excluded French and German and all that goes with it, which is A LOT!
I can't turn up any of Belt's work, but I would doubt that the violin goes back to a self-taught career changer (unless they are a dentist ;-) It really looks rather professional.
So with the lack of signing the instrument by name (unless it's the B....) and the tagging of the fingerboard to belong to a certain violin, I'd rather speculate to a larger workshop setting. Along the lines of: the violin had a generic Lewis and Son shop label and was made by one of their workmen. The label was removed by a dealer who wanted to avoid the confusion with the imported trade violins usually bearing such a label. There is, btw, a very clear outline of a former label in the colour of the wood. I'm attaching a picture.
-
Here is a 1930 from London. Similar downstroke to start the 3.
Been flicking though my copy of "The British Violin" a few times, too, but not much is represented in the book from the relevant time.
-
8 hours ago, M Alpert said:
Definitely looks like the same handwriting... that other inscription might be key. Looks like B...
Yes, I have some hopes here, but couldn't decipher. There are also a couple of dots, which could make this initials; but then again, it seems to continue in lower case after the B.
-
7 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:
While, with instruments from the 18th or even 19th C, one has a good chance of sorting out some regionally characteristic differences which allow one to narrow things down, with instruments from 1937 (assuming that is when it was made), made by a good individual somewhere, its practically impossible. Why American (probably unlightly), Why not Hungarian or Russian or something completely different
Indeed it could be anything. Scandinavia or South America, Eastern Europe.
In fact, when I initially got the violin I was mostly looking towards Eastern Europe, but mainly the "Strad copy" and "1" and "7" makes me favour the US as an hypothesis.
The frustrating thing is that the violin has distinctive features in spades, for instance the central half cut pins or the way the linings are let into the corner blocks (which I have actually not seen quite like that anywhere else). Another thing I forgot to mention is that the internal surfaces have had some sort of sealer applied, which is quite noticeable in the photos as it tends to stay away from gluing surfaces.
-
43 minutes ago, GoPractice said:
The photo of the button might be revealing.
What are the dimensions?
LOB is 356
-
45 minutes ago, jacobsaunders said:
Are the English 1s and 7s the only reason you speculate that it could be American?
Mostly, but also the "Stad copy" seems of an English speaking origin.
Do you think it could be from England?
Copyist
in The Pegbox
Posted
Yes, some of his violins have allegedly lived a part of their live as the original. Being such a good and versatile copyist, however, it can be difficult to be sure a violin is actually by him. Forgeries of this copyist are common. I'd want a bulletproof certificate or two.