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I figure your thinking this guy is retarded well I may be dumb but I'm not stupid so there!
Enough of the dry humor I came into ownership of an instrument yesterday my uncle called and asked if I'd be interested in a violin that he found that looked old and was labelled Stradivarius right away I knew it had to be worth millions and said heck yes by it its got to be real and we have just hit the jackpot were going to be rich!!!
Actually I asked him to look and see if there was an origin of manufacture tag inside and it read Germany.
I believe it to actually be from Germany but the mystery thickens here to where I've hit a dead end in getting a good I.D. I wanted to see if there was a snowballs chance that the sound post might still be in the thing and found it was not,however I noticed 4 numbers inside that read 1753.
This violin was certainly not made in 1753,I turned it over to inspect the rest of it and found the word conservatory stamped behind the peg box the stamp runs in line with the neck,I had thought that this was related to Stainer violin company but their name is not stamped into the body near the heal of the neck.
What I know so far is that the date 1753 is the styling of which the violin was built.in other words it was styled after an Amati Stradivarius from 1753 if I'm not mistaken there and I very well may be.
I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the money restoring this thing or if I'd be better off sending it to violin heaven via Wednesdays trash pick up it will certainly be needing some TLC.
But I have a huge sum of money invested already $4.00 total,anyhow any help would be appreciated in identifying the year it was made I'm thinking likely the late 1970's or sometime in the 1980's that's just my hunch.
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Any luthier near you that you could take it to who might be able to help figure this out?
Jim
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O.K. As an FYI for those who might want to know about these conservatory violins through a lucky turn of events I believe I've found what this violin is.
Having found a listing on an auction site run by a vintage violin auction company I believe this instrument to be what is referred to as a trade instrument.
The label inside reads copy of Antonius Stradivarius and another label reads made in Germany,it has a rather plain figure to the maple on back plate and ribs,and a wide grain to the spruce top,this coupled with the fact that it is branded or stamped conservatory would lead me to believe this is an import brought into the United States by a man named Charles Bruno who was originally from Germany.
He had a business called C Bruno,and son, Charles Bruno was in the instrument business starting in 1884 in Georgia before he moved to New York he had business relationships with a couple of other people before he and his son started C.Bruno,and son,Charles Bruno Jr. took over the business in 1912 ran it until 1924 when another company acquired it which also seems to be gone from the pages of history.
Most of these trade instruments dating from the era of the 1870's to the 1930's were produced in Germany there were of course other countries exporting to the U.S, but from my understanding the majority were German made and were likely built in one or more factories located near or in Markneukirchen Germany.
Czechoslovakia and France were also producing a lot of these trade instruments in the same time frame,so there you go a boring history of a violin you don't care about
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It is neat finding the history of your violin.
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The one thing I find mystifying is that it claims to be modeled after a 1753 Strad. Antonio Stradivari died in 1737, aged 93, and both of his violin-making sons died in the 1740s, so there was no one named Stradivari making violins in 1753.
Maybe the date was meant to signal that it was a copy? Or perhaps it was supposed to read 1735. Stradivari worked right up into the last year of his life.
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AndrewH said
The one thing I find mystifying is that it claims to be modeled after a 1753 Strad. Antonio Stradivari died in 1737, aged 93, and both of his violin-making sons died in the 1740s, so there was no one named Stradivari making violins in 1753.Maybe the date was meant to signal that it was a copy? Or perhaps it was supposed to read 1735. Stradivari worked right up into the last year of his life.
Hi Andrew after having found what I have I am convinced 1753 is actually related to the production count rather than a date as I could not find any other violins branded with the word conservatory and a label stating it to be a copy of a Stradivarius with a style date any latter than 1736,and even at that those instruments were branded with the name Stainer on the back plate.
So in short though I have the name of the importer who sold them its pretty much like a modern day no name Ebay knock off from the early 1900's only these were made in Germany.
On the other hand Stainer violins were an underhanded attempt to misguide people into believing they were related to Jacob Stainer he worked alone and had no school that he passed his techniques on to.
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Four dollars for a violin, I’d say you hit the jackpot but probably not what you had in mind.
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x Coach said
Four dollars for a violin, I’d say you hit the jackpot but probably not what you had in mind.
Believe it or not it has exceeded any expectations I would have had I knew it was an import but just researching this thing was worth the $4.00 because of some of the things I've learned and it is an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a while as I plan to repair it and restore it myself.
And if it doesn't work out I at least got the opportunity to research its origins I'm amazed that I have an instrument that is 45 years older than myself.
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