Buying violins is very confusing. When I first emailed the luthier and told him my budget he said that at that price he had one German and one French. Then when I went to his workshop he presented me with five violins ranging from a third of my budget up to my budget. The German was the most expensive, and he admitted that he had overpaid and had put a huge amount of work into it. But My teacher and I didn't like it, and its grain was very coarse, which is not a good sign. So at least I will end up paying less than I was expecting.

The Breton is not a well defined animal and it may be overpriced, but it has a label which makes it resalable. I also borrowed a cheaper unlabelled French violin from "ca 1900". A week ago I quickly played them (I spent the weekend away), and the 1900 was some distance ahead of my Gewa, and the Breton was some distance ahead of the 1900, so I think I will grit my teeth and go for it. But I have today in which to play and record them.

Here's a snootier maestronet page.

Thanks for the advice, Pierre. 

It's all a done and dusted deal now. I'm playing the Breton as I type (well, not literally, lol). He's a nice guy - he lends my teacher instruments if she's having any work done. He offered to lend me a double case, but I already had two of my own with me. If I ever want extra work or setting up done, he'll do it free of charge. He even gave me the combination number of his workshop lock!

Since it's obviously some kind of Mirecourt ca. 1900, I was toying with the idea of later getting a 120-year-old Bohemian to go with it and contrast with it.

I doubt I'll venture into the minefield of Italian violins. Not with a world financial crisis looming, at least.

But then one has to face the question, why spend so much money on so many instruments rather than all that money on one super instrument? Partly it comes down to what's appropriate to one's amateur status - if I had a £20,000 violin, I'd feel I had to have a £5,000 bow, err, which is twice what my Breton cost!

I deliberately bought a Coda Diamond GX first in order to define the extent of my ambition. Although that Jon Paul Carrera looks tasty, lol!

stringy said
Gordon did you get your violin. If you did how about posting a photo of it, would love to take a look

The marque's history is instructive. Francois Breton was the luthier to the Duchess of Angouleme, and, when he died, his name became public property, and every workshop in the Vosges sold a "Breton" model (how defined? By its yellow varnish? See the catalogues in the link below), or, more usually, three or four with different levels of "luxe".

There's an encyclopaedia called Henley's which lists the marque and four or five of the labels, but not mine. The only such triangular label I can find at the moment is this one, but that's not to say they are the workshop that made my violin. Basically I have an untraceable Breton breveté ca 1900 from a Mirecourt workshop. The pegs have nice mother of pearl inlay, but who knows if they are original or not. The tailpiece is a Wittner ultra. I don't mind the fact that it has four fine tuners. The bridge is made by Michael Shakespeare of Blackheath. You may notice that I have mutes on the G and A strings. This is because without the mutes those afterlengths both resonate on C#, which gives me a slight wolf note.

GregW said
very nice Andrew!  any chance we get to hear some playing?  

  

Yeah, I suppose I'd better practise and get back to you on that one!

This is perhaps the same violin (but 3/4 size): -

https://greedluthier.blogspot......ction.html

You'd think the labels would feature the manufacturer's name, wouldn't you?

I wonder how sure he is it's Jerome Thibouville-Lamy; and, if so, why isn't the label in Henley's?

I have no idea what he means, lol!

I don't think I agree with him, though. It's just flamed, not curly, isn't it?