Here is a tribute to America's Shrine to Music Museum, honoring the U.S.A. during these turbulent times.
Visit http://www.usd.edu/smm/index.html America's Shrine to Music Museum and check out in-depth answers to dozens of questions about music, like this one:
I have a violin labeled Stradivari (or Amati, Stainer, da Salo, Guarneri, etc). Is it real?
America's Shrine tells us:
Just because there's the presence of a label inside a violin does not prove that the violin was made by that particular maker. Hundreds of thousands of mass-produced violins made in Germany, France, central, and eastern Europe, as early as the mid-19th century and even to the present day, have been provided with copies of labels bearing the names of famous 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century makers such as Stradivari, Vuillaume, Amati, Bergonzi, Guarneri, Gasparo da Salò, Stainer, etc.
And although music shops have sold these violins with no intent to deceive the buyer, they do make bucks off of the notoriety of the makers whose patterns and labels they imitate. "These violins turn up in attics and closets worldwide, often providing their owners with a brief period of hopeful anticipation. Their similarity to authentic instruments by the master luthiers is minimal to the trained eye. Although some of these violins may be good, serviceable instruments, most are inferior, mass-produced items. Their sentimental value usually far outweighs their monetary value," they said.
You can determine the authentication of a violin by careful examination of many factors - inspecting the design, model, craftsmanship, wood, and varnish. Sometimes it is not difficult to separate mass-produced violins from fine hand-made instruments. When it is, only a well-trained violin appraiser may be able to attribute the violin's manufacture to a specific maker or place of manufacture.
Note about the museum: America's Shrine to Music Museum, as a matter of legal and ethical policy, does not appraise instruments. If you wish to obtain a formal, written authentication and appraisal of your violin, for which you will most likely be charged a fee, contact a member of The American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers or another violin appraiser in your area.
Visit their photo gallery with items like this:
Violin, "The Harrison," by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, Italy, 1693
The violin survived with its original neck, lengthened slightly where it joins the body. It's probably the greatest concert violin built before 1700, and recognized as one of but half a dozen Strads to survive with its original neck. The image is shown in color as the frontispiece of the standard biography, Antonio Stradivari: His Life and Work (1644-1737), published in 1902 by William E. Hill & Sons of London. It's one of 44 instruments chosen for the international exhibition held in Cremona in 1987 to mark the 250th anniversary of Stradivari's death. Ex. colls: Richard Harrison, London; Henry Hottinger, New York; Kyung Wha Chung, London. Rawlins Fund, 1984. Catalog No. 3598.
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