Is anyone familiar with Franz Kowy of Vienna?

[834Colocello]

Does anyone have, or has anyone seen, a cello made by Franz Kowy of Vienna? My instrument appears to have a maker's label with this name and a 1972 date. 

Unfortunately, the instrument was recently severely damaged in a flood and I'm facing an insurance claim. I do not have a pre-damage appraisal so am searching for someone familiar with this maker or comparable sales. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. 

[jacobsaunders]

You mean Franz NOWY, not Kowy. He was mainly a Guitar and Zither maker, although he did try his hand at Violins occasionally. His main claim to fame was that Anton Karas played one of his Zithers in „The 3rd. Man“

 

[Violadamore]

8 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

You mean Franz NOWY, not Kowy. He was mainly a Guitar and Zither maker, although he did try his hand at Violins occasionally. His main claim to fame was that Anton Karas played one of his Zithers in „The 3rd. Man“

 

Actually, the zither which Karas played for the movie is a George Haid, but it was restored (and had a large obvious label slapped on it) by Novy's firm following the movie. https://www.zither.us/zithers.anton.karas

I can't find many references on Franz Nowy violins, but what I have found suggests that Nowy got them from Carl Weigandt in Markneukirchen.. https://www.polychord.com/lng/en/violine-carl-weigandt-1861.html

https://musescore.com/user/452226/scores/3028281 

I found one post by someone owning a Nowy cello, http://www.cello.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=InstrumentDetailPage&InstrumentID=111

http://www.cello.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=InstrumentLinks

 

 

[Violadamore]

Never mind   See next post. 

[Violadamore]

18 hours ago, 834Colocello said:

Does anyone have, or has anyone seen, a cello made by Franz Kowy of Vienna? My instrument appears to have a maker's label with this name and a 1972 date. 

Unfortunately, the instrument was recently severely damaged in a flood and I'm facing an insurance claim. I do not have a pre-damage appraisal so am searching for someone familiar with this maker or comparable sales. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. 

Yup. it's a maker's label.  Could we please see more photos?

[jacobsaunders]

I certainly can‘t imagine for a second that Nowy made any Celli, although I wouldn‘t be surprised if he „supplied“ some. The OP will have to post pictures of the whole cello if anyone is to make any helpful comment.

 

When I first moved to Vienna I was next door neighbour to Nowy‘s nephew Michael Nowy, also vm. Michael Nowy spent hours telling me how he had studied in Mittenwald next to Weißhaar, of later California fame. He himself seemed to spend most of the day standing on his doorstep in the Mondscheingasse, making sure that no „rabble“ (Gesindl) came into the shop. (didn‘t stop me)

 

The violins from the Franz Nowy shop were made by Anton Guggenberger. Guggenberger also taught Gerhard Neubauer; who was briefly my boss.

[glebert]

Dumb question, the label in the OP's cello seems like it would be quite large based on the light patterns from the f-hole. Too large for a violin, it seems. If Nowy didn't make celli, and at most supplied them (presumably not a great quantity), would this label have also been used for guitars or other larger body instruments? It would seem strange to print up large labels for a few instruments. 

[jacobsaunders]

20 minutes ago, glebert said:

Dumb question, the label in the OP's cello seems like it would be quite large based on the light patterns from the f-hole. Too large for a violin, it seems. 

Would be a nice fit for a Zither though

[Blank face]

1 hour ago, Violadamore said:

can't find many references on Franz Nowy violins, but what I have found suggests that Nowy got them from Carl Weigandt in Markneukirchen.. https://www.polychord.com/lng/en/violine-carl-weigandt-1861.html

The guy who's running the website /selling sometimes strings for interesting prices) seems to have confused picture and description, just proving that one shouldn't blindly trust in every rubbish written in the internet.

Weigandt was discussed once here, the instrument from the photos isn't very similar IMO.

 

[Violadamore]

1 minute ago, Blank face said:

..................one shouldn't blindly trust in every rubbish written in the internet.

Of course not.  For instance, I weigh and examine all of your contributions most carefully.       

I reported what I found (very little indeed), left slack for Polychord because no label was shown, and was most pleased when Jacob settled the matter from his capacious stores of personal experience. 

[BassClef]

Please post photos of the severely damaged cello. There's a thread topic pinned at the top of this forum which will help you regarding which photos to supply.

[Blank face]

34 minutes ago, Violadamore said:

Of course not.  For instance, I weigh and examine all of your contributions most carefully

This would be my most urgent recomendation.

[jacobsaunders]

2 hours ago, glebert said:

Dumb question, the label in the OP's cello seems like it would be quite large based on the light patterns from the f-hole. Too large for a violin, it seems. If Nowy didn't make celli, and at most supplied them (presumably not a great quantity), would this label have also been used for guitars or other larger body instruments? It would seem strange to print up large labels for a few instruments. 

Another unsettling thing about the label is that the ones and the seven are decidedly un-Vienesse

[glebert]

1 hour ago, jacobsaunders said:

Another unsettling thing about the label is that the ones and the seven are decidedly un-Vienesse

He didn't even spell Vienna correctly.  

[Bacon]

Here is an instrument by him, he was a student of Anton guggenberger according to correspondence with his son who was a string maker. He would have been quite old in 72 . More is know of this instrument since the catalogue was written, the instrument was commissioned by the Emperor’s family for a  niece but  not a teacher. 
That is his label and Vien is correct.

[palousian]

Hm, I wonder what they want for the nice 19th-c. Qashqa'i saddlebag face that the instrument is leaning on... Probably looks something like this in the wool...

 

[Bob K]

On 11/5/2019 at 9:25 PM, jacobsaunders said:

Another unsettling thing about the label is that the ones and the seven are decidedly un-Vienesse

So do you think the light marks to the side of the label might be the remains of the original or something else?

[Guido]

6 hours ago, Bacon said:

That is his label and Vien is correct.

No it isn't. It's Wien, the city's name in its native language.

I would also seriously doubt, as Jacob did 2 years ago, that anyone with a Germanic background would write the handwritten numbers as they are, in particular the 1 and the 7.

Together with the water/ glue stains one has to assume that some soaking was going on in the label position at some point.

Mute point at this stage I guess :-)