Albini

[Eloffe]

Could this be a real Albini ?

I am asking for an orchestra member

who arrived in our area recently

It was purchased at A E Smith,Sydney 1946

[martin swan]

Sorry it’s nothing like an Albani.

[GoPractice]

Nope.

Also, the photos are helpful, but look at the label.

[GoPractice]

I have also encountered some AE Smith's instruments. My experience has nothing to do with the shop, but. Trying to understand...

Are you certain that the paper work follows? No, nothing like Albani.

[jacobsaunders]

Saxon box with Fahrkarte

[germain]

4 hours ago, martin swan said:

Sorry it’s nothing like an Albani.

Was Albani a real maker? I heard somewhere that there was no such maker. Kind of like Michele Deconet. 

[JacksonMaberry]

2 hours ago, germain said:

Was Albani a real maker? I heard somewhere that there was no such maker. Kind of like Michele Deconet. 

The Albani/Albanus/Alban family of German speaking violinmakers in Bolzano/Botzen is well documented. Real ones, especially Matthias I (student of Stainer) and II can be absolutely stunning.

[palousian]

Really?  So Stainer did have an apprentice?  The one Albani (M1) I saw was luscious.  Sounded good, too.  But I have no idea whether the inside work reveals a Stainer connection.  In case my tone might be misread, I have no. knowledge. on this point--I had just read (somewhere, stated emphatically if I recall correctly) that Stainer had no apprentices, and as this sort of fiddle is the non plus ultra of my violin obsession, I am hungry for any tidbits of information.

[JacksonMaberry]

32 minutes ago, palousian said:

Really?  So Stainer did have an apprentice?  The one Albani (M1) I saw was luscious.  Sounded good, too.  But I have no idea whether the inside work reveals a Stainer connection.  In case my tone might be misread, I have no. knowledge. on this point--I had just read (somewhere, stated emphatically if I recall correctly) that Stainer had no apprentices, and as this sort of fiddle is the non plus ultra of my violin obsession, I am hungry for any tidbits of information.

I really wish I knew enough German to read the Roy/Senn Stainer book. @jacobsaunderswill hopefully help. That M Albani I claims to have been a student of Stainer does not mean it's true. The instruments suggest at least more than a passing familiarity with the work.

[Blank face]

Mathias Albanus (sic!) 1 appears to be apocryphal anyway; recorded are just 3-4 family members, beginning with Mathias numbered 2 by the overcome counting.

A bit of informations are here:

https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/346191-help-with-violin-identification/&_fromLogin=1

On 6/22/2020 at 9:03 PM, Blank face said:

Regarding the Alban family, there were three reknown and documented early makers from Bozen: Mathias (II) and his sons Michael and Joseph (Giuseppe), both later working in Graz/Austria. Jacob S. posted not long ago a viola d'amore by Joseph (s.below). There was also a certain Joseph Anton Alban working later in the 18th century in Bozen, but his relation to the other Albans isn't really clear. BTW his shop was succeeded by Johannes Jais.

Important is that this Joseph Anton wrote at his labels ""Josephus filius Matth. Albani", Joseph son of Math. Alban (though it's challenged that he in fact was Mathias' son), and this spelling led to the wrong conclusion that all Alban family members spelled themself "Albani" which is the genitiv of the correct latin form "Albanus", the form all other family members used! This informations are given by the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum https://musikinstrumente.musikland-tirol.at/content/musikinstrumenteinhalt/dietirolerschule/

which I would regard as a very reliable source in this matters. Therefore it's very probable that a maker with name and label "Paolo Albani in Palerma 1680" is a made up name, invented by dealers to sign anonymous but somehow "Tyrolean" looking instruments (which were usually made in Markneukirchen or Bohemia). It's also odd that today nearly everybody is using this misspelling to describe the instruments made by this family!

So whoever attributed this violin to "Albani" based on a label with a spurious and misspelled name can't be very trustworthy anyway IMO.

 

 

[jacobsaunders]

15 hours ago, JacksonMaberry said:

I really wish I knew enough German to read the Roy/Senn Stainer book. @jacobsaunderswill hopefully help. That M Albani I claims to have been a student of Stainer does not mean it's true. The instruments suggest at least more than a passing familiarity with the work.

A messenger of the Bishop of Ölmutz, who had been sent to Absam, wrote himself in a letter to the Bishop of Ölmutz “das er nur allain ohne manserben oder lerner ist, dahero die kunst mit ihm absterben und seine geigen heunt oder morgen mehrers aestimiert werden mechten” ("he is alone, without male heir or apprentice, therefore the art will die with him, and his violins, today or tomorrow can be expected to be estimated more highly") .

We discussed that here https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/333000-stainer/&do=findComment&comment=694747

The Senn/Roy book is long super ceded, you need this one der Holfter GmbH im Online-Buchshop : R.Hopfner: Jacob Stainer

[JacksonMaberry]

Thanks!

[Fotios]

6 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

Bishop of Ölmutz

Just a small detail - he was a bishop of Olomouc (Olmütz) in Moravia ...

[Gtone]

Hi Eloffe,

As far as I'm aware any significant work sold through the A.E Smith shop usually had a

number on the right side of the fingerboard ,which was archived/recorded ....but good luck getting that info.

Although Jacob has already stated what it is

do you have any record of sale from the smith shop?

[Eloffe]

8 hours ago, Gtone said:

Hi Eloffe,

As far as I'm aware any significant work sold through the A.E Smith shop usually had a

number on the right side of the fingerboard ,which was archived/recorded ....but good luck getting that info.

Although Jacob has already stated what it is

do you have any record of sale from the smith shop?

Thanks 

I will have another look at it on Thursday for a number 

the owner is having a look for the receipt from Smith 

it is a very good sounding violin 

[Gtone]

45 minutes ago, Eloffe said:

Thanks 

I will have another look at it on Thursday for a number 

the owner is having a look for the receipt from Smith 

it is a very good sounding violin 

Exciting,I do hope they can find it and if they'd be happy to share what it reveals.

 

 

[uguntde]

The hole in the back of the scroll was almost certainly inserted to hang the violin on a hook. Unlikely that it is just a faux pas of the maker that had to be fixed.

[jacobsaunders]

4 minutes ago, uguntde said:

The hole in the back of the scroll was almost certainly inserted to hang the violin on a hook. Unlikely that it is just a faux pas of the maker that had to be fixed.

rubbish

[Renegade Violin]

1 hour ago, jacobsaunders said:

rubbish

Someone tried to make a Stainer, and it turned out to be ... Albania?

[Violadamore]

1 hour ago, uguntde said:

The hole in the back of the scroll was almost certainly inserted to hang the violin on a hook. Unlikely that it is just a faux pas of the maker that had to be fixed.

IMHO, it was probably drilled to make putting a string through the A-peg easier.