When my son was moving on up from his 1/4 size off-the-internet violin from a half size, we tried about 4 different violins. Three were from David Michie Violins. Just that we were in town for the violin camp in Philadelphia, we decided to pay a visit to his shop after local mom we met at the camp recommended his shop. His shop is located seconds from Curtis, so when we visited his shop, there were a few students bringing in their instruments. David was very helpful in the process. After trying nearly a dozen of violin, we narrowed down to three. One was probably made in the 20's and the other one was brand new Doetsch and the last one I can't recall. We asked him to show us something under $1500, so these were our top three from his shop. We arranged to have first two ship to our home in Florida. When we finally received it, we took them to his teacher and asked her opinion. She played both of them. One of them was very robust, but had nasal sound to it. I believe it was the new one. The other one had mellower tone. Then she asked us how much these would cost. So I told her. She looked at me and said. "He will probably outgrow this one in very short time. You don't have to spend that much yet. Instead, when he needs a full size, I want you to invest a good amount of money on a very good violin."
And she made a phone call to one of the luthiers she uses and asked him if he had any good 1/2 size violin in his shop. This is it. He didn't know anything about this violin, but a few years prior, a gentleman walked into his shop with four violins and wanted to sell them. This was one of them. He told us it was probably a German at least 70 - 100 years old. The bridge had a "Reuning and Sons" stamp on it. I contacted them, but they couldn't help me unless I had a documentation that this violin was sold by them. The reply was it could've just been brought in for some minor adjustment. Some months passed and his G string started to buzz, we took it to a gentleman who sold it to us. He scraped some fingerboard, but no resolution. So we decided to take it to Gainesville Violins. The owner, Jan van Rooyen immediately recognized my son's violin and told us it was made by Neuner & Hornsteiner. "I can tell you the precise year this violin was made." He said. "It was made in 1880 in Mittenwald, Germany." According to him, this violin has plum color which they used in their earlier production and has single lower rib with bee-sting at the bottom center. This method was only used until 1880. That makes this violin 127 years old! And the price? $750.00 :)
2 comments:
I also play a Neuner and Hornsteiner violin from 1880 :) it's a 7/8 size because I have short arms and small hands but it bears many similarities to the violin you've posted :)
The Varnish is so dark our kids used to call it a black violin. Isn't it fun to imagine who might have been playing it before we got a hold of it?
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