My 1920 JTL Violin

[Violadamore]

4 hours ago, germain said:

..........They are trade quality instruments..............most of them sound really nice but far from a piece of art. 

Equally far from a POS. 

[Wood Butcher]

5 hours ago, germain said:

That’s a bit over the top. Let’s be realistic here. They are trade quality instruments. They make decent player instruments made by the thousands hence the low price, most of them sound really nice but far from a piece of art. 

Where does the distinction between trade and art start or end?
How would you describe a violin made in the workshop of Collin-Mezin, or Vuillaume? They had the hands of more than one person on them during making.

[martin swan]

8 minutes ago, Wood Butcher said:

Where does the distinction between trade and art start or end?
How would you describe a violin made in the workshop of Collin-Mezin, or Vuillaume? They had the hands of more than one person on them during making.

We could add Gand & Bernardel and Caressa & Francais ... but realistically many of the Paris makers worked this way.

The idea of single makers working alone in their garrets is a pretty modern concept. After all, before the rather recent development of violin making schools, where did all these violin makers learn to make violins?

 

 

[Wood Butcher]

Which is the point I was getting at.
It's easy for Germain to take pot shots at a high end JTL, as just trade, and therefore not special. But the reality is that there was nothing different happening in supposedly more illustrious workshops, which he/she might approve of.

[Bob K]

Maybe an analogy to the early C20th JTL offerings these days would be something like Fender guitars. They have a complete range of quality from the low budget Squier models, churned out in China or Indonesia, through umpteen varieties up to the top end USA built 'Custom Shop' models with higher quality materials, fittings and finishes and where an individual maker gets to assemble and finish (or at least oversee and sign) carefully selected but mass produced parts (sometimes emulating old 'road worn' models - analagous to 'en vieux'). Second hand prices usually reflect the original model spec. and certain 'vintages' can command a premium.

[fiddlecollector]

Ive played many Fender Strats and some of the custom shop ones are not particularly impressive ,they look nice but often some of the Squiers play better , certainly not worth the premium price in many cases.

[jacobsaunders]

I see nothing problematic with calling JTL “Trade”, after all it was a big factory with smoke stacks and it’s own railway siding. Artisan violin making was more flavour of the day in the 17^th. & 18^th. C. and from about mid 19^th. C everything was more or less industrialised.

[germain]

16 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

I see nothing problematic with calling JTL “Trade”, after all it was a big factory with smoke stacks and it’s own railway siding. Artisan violin making was more flavour of the day in the 17^th. & 18^th. C. and from about mid 19^th. C everything was more or less industrialised.

Exactly. Also thinking of the talent that worked for Vuillaume, not to mention the bow makers. Of course there were plenty of similarities especially in the training but the greatest talent was employed in the workshops of Vuillaume (Hill and Bisiach respectively)

[germain]

Here you go a work of art from down the block from the JTL store… 

[KB_Smith]

Not sure why, but I always like a 1-piece back. I think it’s the aesthetics and balanced look of the grain. Must be many beautiful instruments available in NYC. Thanks for posting this one. Can we see the front of this violin?

[germain]

5 hours ago, KB_Smith said:

Not sure why, but I always like a 1-piece back. I think it’s the aesthetics and balanced look of the grain. Must be many beautiful instruments available in NYC. Thanks for posting this one. Can we see the front of this violin?

The front of this instrument doesn’t belong to the rest of it. It had been replaced with another French top but late 19th century. The rest of the violin back scroll ribs are early 19th century - 1828/30.