So:
- While visiting my Grandmother in Alberta, I discovered a violin that has been in the family for as long as she can remember. It was just sitting in a closet. The violin belonged to my Grandfather's brother, who we believe received it at a young age in Ukraine from his father (19th century), who may also have played it.
- It's not in great shape, but given it's age, maybe it is?
- The label inside says "Joseph Guarnerius fecit Cremonae Anno 1741 IHS" on the inside. The "41" in the 1741" is hand-written.
- While I am no expert, given only 150 of these are known to exist, and how pervasive 100-year-old copies of these violins are, it must not be authentic. This position seems to be further justified by what appears to be a lack of a neck graft.
Here is a link to an album of photos
I understand from reading through other similar posts that:
- It's pretty hard to check authenticity online. Go get it properly appraised by a luthier. Potentially have it restored?
- Perhaps there may be a luthier here on Reddit that may be able to weigh in on any dead giveaways that this is indeed a very old copy of a Guarneri.
Regardless of it's market value, it's intrinsic value to our family is without question. What a cool find!
Any luthier care to comment? Thanks in advance!
Hi Brett and Eddy,
I am a chemist in Canada and much appreciate your channel. I came across a peer-review paper published in pretty high tier paper in Chemistry (Angewandte Chemie International Edition) that looks into the material aspects of violins made by Stradivari and Guarneri. So that might be of your interest.
The article is apparently an open article so you guys can check it out (link below)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202105252
Cheers!
Michael Y.
I'm interested in seeing an animated gif showing the difference (via a morphing image) between a Stradivarius violin and a Guarneri violin.
Does such a morphing image already exist?
If not, maybe I could make it.
While there are lots of images of Stradivarius and Guarneri violins online, can you suggest a good representative of each?
I know there is a book that luthiers use with high res studio photos of famous violins in real size, I suppose is part of the material that they use for making the copies.
Is there any place I can find these images online? I mean a website listing the violins and the related photos, trying to search google or even reddit is almost impossible due the sheer amount of information regarding copies of these violins.
I have no motivation other than pure curiosity.
Edit: Imgur link to photos of the violin - https://imgur.com/a/zZVFx0a
Hello! I'm working with a small religious archives, doing some research into a nun who was quite an accomplished violinist. We have her violin in the archives and I'm trying to figure out when/where it was made.
Given that religious life doesn't provide a high salary, I highly doubt that this is an actual Guarneri violin. However, it would be cool if we could figure out any other data about it. The label is in pretty good condition on the inside and the script is copied below (the '18' and the comma at the end are handwritten). There's no country listed and no 'made in' addition to the label, which is why I'm curious - the McKinley Act required that imports to the U.S.A. have these labels after the mid 1800's.
Inscription: 'Iofeph Guarnerins filius Andrae fecit / Cremonae fub titulo S. Therefiae 1718,'
She was active in the 1960's-80's and a violinist all her life. The violin itself is pretty worn down through heavy use. Let me know what you think!
