More info on Marc Laberte label, please?

[Peppercorn]

Hello all. I've been lurking here since my 8 year old daughter announced she would like to learn the violin at the beginning of the year. Money is very limited at the moment so we thought a Stentor 2 would be ok for the price and it's doing fine for what she needs at this stage. Anyway, I thought it might be nice to get myself a cheap violin and practice with her, some mum/daughter time, I have no musical experience but it's never too late to learn. So I've been trawling the web (I know...not the best idea) and I've ended up with a second hand/vintage violin with a Marc Laberte label. I've read every thing possible about his workshops and Terriers site. (As much as I could understand and manually translate, lol), and I think it may be genuine, although I wouldn't be surprised if it is not. I didn't pay too much and I still have a nice violin to play with in the end. I'll take it in to her teacher to see how it sounds - hopefully better than it sounds with my 'hot cross buns' rendition! It's out of tune, too, so she may help me with that. I'm hoping it will also be good enough for my daughter to go onto as she progresses.

The label is a Marc Laberte label with the two 8 string instruments, but it doesn't have the " Fais sous la Direction de" or any other label with copy details. I'm wondering (if it's genuine) if it is still a copy of one of the masters, and if so...would the knowledgeable folk here be able tell what copy it is just by looking at it? I've been through the catalogues and they make reference to this kind of label from what I could gather, but I couldn't really find any violins relating.

I'm not sure if the photos will show properly, but it has black outlines on the scroll and on the side joins (c joins?), the purfling is quite close and fine and very close to the edge it seems to me, and there are cleats along the bottom of the inside bottom join. It's quite red in colour depending on the light in the room. The flaming on the back is nice, the lines appearing and disappearing, I couldn't really capture it in photos, but it's there. It also came in what is probably its original black violin shape case with a green lining, also in pretty good condition. (We are located in Australia)

Thank you.

 

 

[martin swan]

The violin is a standard Mirecourt model which can be found with all sorts of labels in - basically a sort of Grand Amati pattern. The corners are very exaggerated, the edge too with quite a heavy recurve to the arching, and the purfling set quite far out on the edge.

The label looks like a genuine Marc Laberte label, but trying to draw inferences from Mirecourt labels is a fool's errand! Whether the label was there at the first point of sale is moot - I would slightly doubt it. Certainly the violin is a nice generic instrument, and it may well have been sold by Laberte. But it's not the quality of work that's normally found with a numbered Marc Laberte label.

These instruments tend to sound very good, I would say leagues ahead of a Stentor. It may need a bit of setting up to get it at its best, but I think you've done very well indeed.

[Nick Allen]

The arching and corners are a little cheesy for my taste. But nice find!

[Peppercorn]

Thank you for taking the time to answer. Violin provenance really does seem to be a bit of a goose chase from everything I've read, and at the level of this violin I suppose it's not really important, just for my own curiousity.

I love most things vintage, with a sense of some history, so I'm really happy to know that the violin is mirecourt. I'd already suspected that it was just a bog standard one, even to my untrained eye, the scroll looks a bit rugged with some chisel marks, and the painting is a bit sloppy in places.

I hadn't even noticed the degree of difference of arching and corners, even after looking at hundreds of photos, so I obviously haven't developed a violin eye, yet, lol.

Thank you. I'm happy with my violin, and somewhat relieved that it's not a complete and utter dud.