Three13

I took this at 10:00 AM during the last spate of wildfires here in California as a little reminder of the apocalyptic vibe:

I'd love to see more (and higher res) images of that violin - outside of the Benedek book, I haven't seen many images of his fiddles.

Does that letter really constitute what people consider "very good papers"? I'd have thought that mid-20th century "school-of" letters (without photos to go along with them) would be pretty meaningless to most dealers, although I could be wrong.

The 1830 date isn’t a reference to when Gand Studied under Lupot, but represents the date that the instrument would have been made (assuming the label were real).

Seems like the tone of voice used when pronouncing something “nice” is probably more telling than the word…

It’s one solution to the infestation of “the usual”.

Was this from sun or LA smog?

Fascinating read - I managed to find a not-so-great image of the Kresnik from the museum that was mentioned in the article, as well as one that showed up on EBay.

Is that the Lady Blunt?

Looks like a stereotypical Mirecourt fiddle to me - I can't speak to its quality, but I'm sure many here will have opinions.

It seems like it follows the grain of the wood - is it possible that it's just compression/wear of the soft summer grain on the maple?

The Reuning book on Bergonzi is fantastic and can be had reasonably, compared to some of the other heavy hitting books out there. It's a shame that there isn't more information about Carlo, MA and Zosimo (who I suspect might have been a bit more productive that people currently imagine).

This?

Great music, and a fine looking (and sounding) fiddle. Thanks for posting - It's good to see something from a maker here seeing use out in the world...

The interesting thing about the Ole Bull "da Salo" is what is known about its early provenance - it was allegedly commissioned by a Cardinal whose last name is alternately given as "Aldorandi" or "Adebrandi" and presented to the Treasury at Innsbruck; however, but there were no Cardinals of that name in the 16th, 17th or 18th centuries. There are a few with vaguely similar names, but only one who was a papal nuncio to Austria (basically an ambassador), Mario Albericci, whose last name is recorded in a variety of different spellings. He was nuncio to Austria from 1671-1675, which slots in pretty nicely with what you might expect for a high-class faux Brescian like that.