Label Identification

[HillelG]

Hi everybody, is there any way to identify if a label is legitimate or false? When you're looking for violins in the price range up to 5k dollars their are so much violins with all kind of fake labels, how in the world is possible to identify which one is real?

Edited June 23 by HillelG

[matesic]

I'm afraid it's the violin you need to identify, not the label. Check out a thousand ID threads on this site and you'll appreciate the difficulty.

[GeorgeH]

17 hours ago, HillelG said:

is there any way to identify if a label is legitimate or false?

Fake labels can often quickly be identified as such because of properties of the label itself such as the paper used, text, print, ink, fonts, etc.

Confirming that a label is authentic to a violin requires first identifying the violin as @matesic said.

[Brad Dorsey]

As an example of how confounding the whole label thing can be, consider the fact that there are genuine Strads that have fake. or altered, Strad labels in them.

[Guido]

18 hours ago, HillelG said:

Hi everybody, is there any way to identify if a label is legitimate or false? When you're looking for violins in the price range up to 5k dollars their are so much violins with all kind of fake labels, how in the world is possible to identify which one is real?

Simple. If the violin would be worth more than the seller is asking, the label is fake.

If you pay top dollar according to the label you might still be screwed.

Best option is to buy from a reputable dealer you trust, and also look for independent certificates.