Can someone tell me more about my violin

[Kris Kiper]

Few days ago I received old violin. This is what I know abou it:
The instrument belonged to 85 year old lady, she got it when she was a child from her grandfather (who was a professional violinist). Because of II World War she never lerned to play violin. Instrument was kept on wardrobe ever sinc.

Because there is a crack in the upper plate I decided to take the instrument to luther. Inside Instrument there is a old stamp "Barański", and signature "Proszowski", but my luther said that inside was a label, which was removed and instead of it Mr. Barański put his own stamp when repaired violin, someone also took original varnish off and put new one.
My luther is claiming that violin look like made in Germany ca. 250 years ago and it is baroque violin, but he can not tell anything more as he has no experiance in old instruments.

I will be very grateful for any information about the violin.

I made 20 pictures: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lgcec7wbpvs3azw/iMUIVWTpWk

[Kris Kiper]

I have another thing to discuss.

My luther said, he can convert my violin to modern one. Right now my violin has shorter mensura, the luther thinks that someone in the past took baroque neck of my violin and remake it to modern one, but did not change mensura.

My question is what shall I do? Convert it to modern violin or leave it as it is?



(btw, I'm from Krakow, Poland)

[Udo Kretzschmann]

Hi Kris,

it is very difficult to say something about a violin only by photographs. I have to turn the instrument in my fingers, have to see the reflections of the varnish, look at the edgework and so on.

But I agree it looks a little like a old Saxonian one. Hammig was a violin maker I could imagine. The strong F-holes - so close to the C-bouts, what I see from the arching, also a little the scroll. But I repeat, this is only a very unclear guess!!

What's about the body stop (body mensur)? And can you see the kind of upper block? Is there a longer rectangular platform at the bottom?

In my opinion it made no sence to take a baroque neck away and give a shorter one again?! And for the future it depends of you aim. If you like to play baroque music i would recommend to "convert it to a baroque one. Is there a modern bass bar in it?

Soncerely

Udo

[Kris Kiper]

Hello Udo, thank you for your respond.

to answer your questions I did some measurements:

Total violin length: 585 mm
Vibrating string length: 320 mm
Neck length: 125 mm
Body length: 353 mm

when I looking into the violin through the end button hole, I can see that something was done with upper block, because there is a lot of dark glue on it. I can't see a longer rectangular platform, but the block looks different than the block in my modern violin.

I do not know how the baroque bass-bar should look like, but if I compare it with modern violin, I can tell you that the bass-bar in old one is different. Has a different shape and is thinner.

Few days ago I took the instrument to another luther. He said to me straight away that it is old german school. He took some old catalog and showed to me very similar violin made by Johann Georg Hammig. He said that scroll, f-holes, c-bouts, even wood on the ribs, all together look very much like his work. But on the end he repeated after his friend, he is not an expert and it is just his free thinking as he very rarely works with baroque instruments.

[Kris Kiper]

If someone would like to buy the violin presented above, feel free to contact me.

I certainly will not be playing the baroque violin, I'm too old for chandes.
I think it would be a pity to cut off original neck and convert this instrument to modern one, so I decided to sell it to someone who will enjoy playing baroque instrument.

[Kris Kiper]

if someone is interested, my contact details are here:

(contact details on request removed - 23.08.2017 Udo Kretzschmann)

[Kris Kiper]

Hey, i just wanted to sher few pictures of my violin during and after renovation.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9an02srf0tg3 ... fNWAa?dl=0

[Udo Kretzschmann]

Hi Kris,

thank you for showing us the pictures of your violin.

But was it really necessary to varnish the instrument completely new?! I hope it wasn't a violin maker who did this crime!

Before the violin was interesting and looked really nice and now...

Best greetings

Udo

[Kris Kiper]

hey Undo, actually it was a violin maker who did it.
It happens when you do not know to whom to entrust your instrument.

[Heidrun Eichler]

What a pitty

[Udo Kretzschmann]

hey Undo,

Hi Kris,

was this a Freudian slip?! I wish you could undo the varnishing...

I'm really anxious that a colleague tainted your instrument in that way...

Greetings

Udo

[Kris Kiper]

The time will not go back. My violin look different.

anyway, the main important thing is that they have still very beautiful sound.

[Kris Kiper]

Can I kindly ask Moderators to remove this topic from the Forum.

Thank you.

[Udo Kretzschmann]

Hi Kris,

I understand your request, so I removed your contact details.

Best greetings

Udo

[Kris Kiper]

Hi Udo,

I will be very grateful if you remove whole topic, please.

king regards,

Kris