German Conservatory Violin

[PaganiniVuillaume]

Happened across this violin. Can anyone tell me if it is any decent or not? Thanks!

Edited June 30, 2019 by bsharma8

[matesic]

I think the general silence speaks volumes. Similar mass-produced instruments turn up with various inscriptions on the scroll - Concert violin, Grand solo violin, Paganini violin etc. I believe they've been discussed on this site in the past. I had a "Concert violin" that played well enough but I wouldn't be confident to generalise. At Amati's auction it raised less than £150

[deans]

These are often pretty good sounding, this looks like it could be OK if there are no issues.

[deans]

Just noticed a peg crack, looks to be poorly repaired. Doesn't take much with something like this to knock it out of consideration.

[Violadamore]

[Yawns.]  From the inscription on the back of the scroll, it looks to me like a Lowendall, which was a Berlin firm founded in 1866 (persisting into the 20th. Century), which sold a wide variety of levels of quality of mass-produced violins (mostly Markies), primarily to the US export trade.  IMHO, you'll have to play it to know if it's any good. 

[Rue]

13 minutes ago, Violadamore said:

...IMHO, you'll have to play it to know if it's any good. 

Yes indeed!

Even if you're contemplating a Strad...same advice! 

[Violadamore]

4 hours ago, Rue said:

Yes indeed!

Even if you're contemplating a Strad...same advice! 

Yes, but hopefully, the Lowendall won't have been at the mercy of nearly as many restorers. 

[jacobsaunders]

8 hours ago, Violadamore said:

[Yawns.]  From the inscription on the back of the scroll, it looks to me like a Lowendall, which was a Berlin firm founded in 1866 (persisting into the 20th. Century), which sold a wide variety of levels of quality of mass-produced violins (mostly Markies), primarily to the US export trade. 

 

Rubbish. Löwendahl was a wholesaler, and not a maker. Match posted a Letter from Löwendahl himself which confirms this here

 

[Violadamore]

4 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

Rubbish. Löwendahl was a wholesaler, and not a maker. Match posted a Letter from Löwendahl himself which confirms this here

 

Double rubbish right back at you!  One supposes you examine photos as closely as you did my text. Jacob, just where in my post did I call Lowendall a maker?  I said they were a firm, and sold violins, and that they got most of them from Markneukirchen.  I did not imply in any way that they made violins.   Get it right before you start slinging aspersions in my direction.  [Steps around a puddle of aspersions, and begins loading her much-feared jai-lai cesta with fermented rabbit manure, just like the old days.]

[jacobsaunders]

1 hour ago, Violadamore said:

fermented rabbit manure

Löwendahl was a merchant who sold vast amounts of Markneukirchen stuff, of various grades. To single out some random anonymous „Markie“ and say „it looks to me like a Löwendall“ is snake oil Sales(wo)manship of the highest order.

[deans]

The association with this type of scroll with Berlin and/or Lowendall is permently ingrained.

It probably also has a blackened pegbox........

[Violadamore]

45 minutes ago, jacobsaunders said:

Löwendahl was a merchant who sold vast amounts of Markneukirchen stuff, of various grades. To single out some random anonymous „Markie“ and say „it looks to me like a Löwendall“ is snake oil Sales(wo)manship of the highest order.

As is well known around MN, the Lowendall firm was associated with the feature of carving the rear scroll flutes in two separate sections with a raised smooth tablet in the middle, suitable for inscribing meaningless marketing fluff on, as in this case.  It seems to have served as a trademark.  You also seem to have missed that I'm not being particularly complimentary toward the fiddle in question.  I'm not fond of these, any more than I am of violins with "Paganini" carved on them, or other gimmicks.  The extra time wasted on tricks like this could have been spent on better graduation, or varnish, or something.

[jacobsaunders]

23 minutes ago, deans said:

 permently ingrained.

Yes, on a par with J.B.Schweizer Budapest 1813

[PhilipKT]

23 minutes ago, Violadamore said:

As is well known around MN, the Lowendall firm was associated with the feature of carving the rear scroll flutes in two separate sections with a raised smooth tablet in the middle, suitable for inscribing meaningless marketing fluff on, as in this case.  It seems to have served as a trademark.  You also seem to have missed that I'm not being particularly complimentary toward the fiddle in question.  I'm not fond of these, any more than I am of violins with "Paganini" carved on them, or other gimmicks.  The extra time wasted on tricks like this could have been spent on better graduation, or varnish, or something.

I wish I had that “eating popcorn drinking coke” emoji. I’m rooting for you.

[Violadamore]

6 minutes ago, PhilipKT said:

I wish I had that “eating popcorn drinking coke” emoji. I’m rooting for you.

Thanks!  You gotta watch using that term for cheering if the Aussies wander in. 

Here it is, snag a copy.... 

[PhilipKT]

Is rooting a bad word in Australian?

[PhilipKT]

10 minutes ago, Violadamore said:

Thanks!  You gotta watch using that term for cheering if the Aussies wander in. 

Here it is, snag a copy.... 

I can save it as a screenshot how do I save it as a gif? Or whatever the file term is?

 

ok figured it out. Saving the image got the whole thing and not just a still

Edited July 4, 2019 by PhilipKT
Figured it out

[PhilipKT]

 I really like the word “rubbish.” My papa always used the word, “piffle”

But I may adopt the new one, it’s so… English.

[jacobsaunders]

I suppose beeing thick and proud of the fact, is more fun than plain vanilla thick

[Rue]

I just love the International playground at recess...

[PhilipKT]

I like my vanilla shakes thick.

but I prefer Jamocha.

[Blank face]

15 hours ago, Violadamore said:

As is well known around MN, the Lowendall firm was associated with the feature of carving the rear scroll flutes in two separate sections with a raised smooth tablet in the middle, suitable for inscribing meaningless marketing fluff on, as in this case.  It seems to have served as a trademark. 

Can't tell if this is really well known around MN, but if so it's BS which should be corrected as soon as possible.

Leaving a sort of tablet or platform at the rear pegbox was very common within many Mark/Schönb necks, so that a wholesaler could leave some meaningless inscription there, and by no means exclusive to stuff sold by Lowendall. To make a whole comunity or continent of violin buyers believe that this is a sort of trademark for a certain firm is a marketing trick much more valuable than any small effort put into carving or graduating from a business point of view.

[RyanJ]

.

[RyanJ]

On 7/4/2019 at 11:48 AM, jacobsaunders said:

Löwendahl was a merchant who sold vast amounts of Markneukirchen stuff, of various grades. To single out some random anonymous „Markie“ and say „it looks to me like a Löwendall“ is snake oil Sales(wo)manship of the highest order.

I understand that the “Schachteln,” the unfinished body of the instrument, was the common ancestor of commercial Saxon work, but why isn't it possible to identify the “Stadtgeigenbauer,” of which put the finishing touches on the instrument? Shouldn't this be where their actual defining features come from?

[jacobsaunders]

5 hours ago, JRyn said:

I understand that the “Schachteln,” the unfinished body of the instrument, was the common ancestor of commercial Saxon work, but why isn't it possible to identify the “Stadtgeigenbauer,” of which put the finishing touches on the instrument? Shouldn't this be where their actual defining features come from?

because the extent of "finishing" here didn't even involve sticking a label in, and the only connection to a Stadtgeigenbauer (who wasn't one) is BS from VdA.