Ignacio Fleta violin signed by Heifetz

[Three13]

5 hours ago, Jerry Pasewicz said:

Well, the thing is you can find untold thousands of instruments with the same wear and rib bulge....how many could Paganini have owned, and how did he file so many after he was dead?

Don't encourage him.....someone will have to deal with it in the real world.

 

Definitely ex-Paganini:

[Andreas Preuss]

21 hours ago, A432 said:

There is a wonderful sense of certainty -- of absolute personal conviction -- that comes from ignoring evidence incongruous with one's beliefs. We've certainly been treated to an abundance of it here.

In isolation, the edge could be attributed to playing wear. But only by ignoring that

1) It had hardly been played at all previously to his acquiring it in 1802.

2) That his practice-driven mastery of the violin had been accomplished well before this, in his youth. So whatever fiddle(s) he may or may not have put serious wear on, it wasn't the Cannone.

3) That once he had it, he hardly ever "practiced" at all -- a fact noted with amazement by many people familiar with him -- many of whom, like Ernst, were following him from city to city and renting hotel rooms next to him in hopes of learning his "secret" by listening him practicing.

4) That he sometimes went months at a time without playing it at all -- especially after an exhausting tour and when serious medical problems left him incapacitated, but also earlier in time, when he found gambling and romancing Contessas much more entertaining.

5) That from the point he willed it to the city of Genoa on, it went essentially unplayed by anyone.

Given the foregoing, attributing the missing back plate edge to "wear" caused by playing it, merely because that's what it looks like, is absurd. Other than while performing, he hardly played it at all. 

Similarly, attributing it to a bulging rib, merely because that's what it looks like it could be is another absurdity, given that the > 2 mm edge loss is measurable in relation to the purfling.

In light of the above, in its totality, attributing the groove in the heel -- another important detail -- to wear caused by playing (yet again, apparently because that's what it looks like it could have been) is not one that has been well thought through. Rather, like the "edge wear' and "bulging rib" explanations, it is an assumption that doesn't hold up. It wasn't played enough for it to have happened that way.

Sherlock Holmes : "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Factor in Marfan Syndrome (preceding post), which agrees 100 % with both his documented  hand position and the "wear" at issue, and it is self-evident that this must have been deliberate modification. Not conclusively proven (an impossibility), but overwhelmingly probable.

 

 

Interesting theory. 

My point as someone who had copied the cannon (my profile picture here is my copy of the cannon) I can only say it is pretty damm difficult to get those worn down areas optically right. And if you do it by rasping sanding or whatever method it would look different to natural wear. So if the wear on the upper edge on the the original would have been made artificially it wouldn't look like this. (Besides, I had it in my hands once and absolutely nothing looked like voluntarily altered.)  

The argument that Paganini didn't practice any more is IMO very weak. Paganini was a show master who could make believe the public anything which would help his magic appearances. He was what I would call the first scandal driven 'rock star'. What would be better than creating the image of someone who never practiced but could play like the devil? Sorry I think all this was only made up by Paganini and in reality he regularly practiced on his favourite instrument, maybe just not as much as in his youth. 

[scordatura]

On 10/4/2019 at 12:46 AM, A432 said:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Ennio+Bolognini+&&view=detail&mid=F137C2975BC813FC33CDF137C2975BC813FC33CD&&FORM=VRDGAR

Longest 'cello bow I think I ever saw 

Is that bow longer than normal ? Interesting left hand/arm position. In the lower positions it almost looks like a violinist. Left arm is very close to torso.