Schwartzinc Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 https://www.cleveland.com/arts/2021/02/is-this-violin-a-rare-stradivarius-cleveland-area-man-on-quest-to-prove-estate-sale-purchase-is-worth-millions.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rue Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 Hope springs eternal! Someone explain to me why, when photographing old violins, the old, broken, dangling strings aren't removed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violadamore Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 1 hour ago, Schwartzinc said: STRADIVARIUS IN THE BASEMENT ....WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? What a delightful change from attic finds! If the media account is accurate (a BIG assumption, as we have seen before ), and it actually is a Strad, it's interesting that without an original label and unbroken provenance, nobody seems certain enough to decide, just by examination. Sort of a blind test of connoisseurship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Yacey Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 Cochineal was only used by Strad? I think a dendrochronologist could offer more insight on the age and where it came from, as well as experts on the old Cremonese instruments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geigenbauer Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 I was trying to share this older discussion... Apologies for the empty post above: https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/347962-strad-from-an-estate/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violadamore Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 8 minutes ago, Geigenbauer said: I was trying to share this older discussion... Apologies for the empty post above: https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/347962-strad-from-an-estate/ Yup, but I needed a use for my "poke'em with a stick" gif. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Burgess Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 1 hour ago, Bill Yacey said: I think a dendrochronologist could offer more insight on the age and where it came from, as well as experts on the old Cremonese instruments. I'm thinkin' so too. From the article: Kavalec himself entered the picture later, as an investor. A fitness professional, glass blower, and amateur physicist, he had both the artistic and scientific backgrounds needed to take up the case. Well, how could anyone be a better violin expert than a fitness professional, glass blower, and amateur physicist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rue Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 I was more taken by this bit of "support": "Fein also brought a violinist friend, now deceased, to play the instrument, and she testified to its special tone, Kavalec said." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Holmes Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Bill Yacey said: Cochineal was only used by Strad? I think a dendrochronologist could offer more insight on the age and where it came from, as well as experts on the old Cremonese instruments. I get the funny feeling he really doesn't want the "quest" to end just yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violadamore Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 38 minutes ago, Rue said: I was more taken by this bit of "support": "Fein also brought a violinist friend, now deceased, to play the instrument............." See, it must be a Strad. https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/350750-the-strad-soundexplained-in-a-nutshell/&do=findComment&comment=958502 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rue Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeH Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 14 minutes ago, Jeffrey Holmes said: I get the funny feeling he really doesn't want the "quest" to end just yet... The article is one year old. I supposed he has his answer by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Holmes Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 17 minutes ago, GeorgeH said: The article is one year old. I supposed he has his answer by now. Possible, but the article mentioned the "quest" had already gone on for years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Preuss Posted January 5, 2022 Report Share Posted January 5, 2022 You can’t make a media sensation by making the headline Lupot found in the basement. (though I wouldn’t mind to find one.) Dendro is a pretty precise analysis tool in particular for instruments by Antonio Stradivari, but before doing it one must make sure that the top belongs to the rest. (I wouldn’t mind to find an original with a replaced top.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwartzinc Posted January 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 2 hours ago, Rue said: I was more taken by this bit of "support": "Fein also brought a violinist friend, now deceased, to play the instrument, and she testified to its special tone, Kavalec said." Maybe we need to raise the dead and have a conversation with them in order to get to the bottom of this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Cramer Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 I liked this part of the article: The estate from which Kavalec’s partner made the purchase was that of Gerardi’s daughter, who Kavalec said experienced a struggle not unlike his own to convince others of the violin’s significance in an arena dominated by dealers motivated to keep price-tags low. For years, he said, the instrument simply sat dormant. I had no idea dealers were motivated to keep price-tags low. Live and learn! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Preuss Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 1 hour ago, Al Cramer said: I had no idea dealers were motivated to keep price-tags low. Live and learn! Depends if the dealer sells or buys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Noon Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 5 hours ago, Jeffrey Holmes said: Possible, but the article mentioned the "quest" had already gone on for years... The "quest" would not stop if the predominant opinion of experts was that it's NOT a Strad. Just as the quest to find bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster continues. Just my opinion. Dendro analysis would be nice, but even before that is the light transmissibility test. Genuinely old violins have very opaque plates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Holmes Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 7 hours ago, Don Noon said: The "quest" would not stop if the predominant opinion of experts was that it's NOT a Strad. Just as the quest to find bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster continues. Just my opinion. Dendro analysis would be nice, but even before that is the light transmissibility test. Genuinely old violins have very opaque plates. Yup... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeH Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 7 hours ago, Don Noon said: The "quest" would not stop if the predominant opinion of experts was that it's NOT a Strad. Just as the quest to find bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster continues. Just my opinion. Dendro analysis would be nice, but even before that is the light transmissibility test. Genuinely old violins have very opaque plates. "Quests" only continue if there is money to be made from them by somebody. In this case, I don't see any follow-up articles about the violin being sold, which is what I would expect he would do with much publicity if it were a real Stradivarius. I don't see how anyone is making any money here. After all, he did buy it as a speculative investment. On the other hand, people will delay and procrastinate doing definitive tests if there is a chance that the test will prove their hypothesis wrong. Who wants to have an unhappy ending to a good story or have a fact destroy a clever theory? So maybe he hasn't had any tests done. Or maybe it was made by the Voller Brothers. ************ In regards to "the light transmissibility test," what about newer violins made with genuinely old wood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delabo Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 8 hours ago, Don Noon said: Genuinely old violins have very opaque plates. have you a scientific explanation as to why this happens to old wood? And can this be tested without taking the top off and holding the plate to a light? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelbow Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 The pictures are pretty terrible, but does it look like anything in particualr to anyone? Just curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Bean Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 Strads are found in attics over here, not in basements! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Holmes Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 1 hour ago, GeorgeH said: "Quests" only continue if there is money to be made from them by somebody. In this case, I don't see any follow-up articles about the violin being sold, which is what I would expect he would do with much publicity if it were a real Stradivarius. ************ In regards to "the light transmissibility test," what about newer violins made with genuinely old wood? I wouldn't discount the attention he receives for continuing on seemingly against all odds... Man of La Mancha with a fiddle. My experience with new fiddles made from (what I was pretty sure was, or was told was) older wood is that while the tops might not transmit as much light, they do still transmit. Of course, the question is how old is the wood that was used? I've never bothered to get a dendro report on a new fiddle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Holmes Posted January 6, 2022 Report Share Posted January 6, 2022 59 minutes ago, Delabo said: And can this be tested without taking the top off and holding the plate to a light? Looking in the endpin hole with a bright light on the exterior works. My experience is that light transmission of top wood is notably reduced starting around 100 years and continues to be reduced for a good while thereafter. I am not confident concerning the scientific explanation I can offer as to why this all happens. I assume it has something to do with oxidation and UV exposure. NC university produced a paper addressing the effect of UV... Hopefully Don Noon knows more. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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