Official Luthiers Forum!

A friend inherited his grandfather's house and found 2 violins in the attic. He asked me about them so we did some research. One had some paperwork in the case stating that the instrument got a repair and an appraisal from the shop of Willis M Gault, in NW Washington DC, in 1968.

He says one is French without noting much, but the other is German, made by the Hornsteiner family in Mittenhall, Germany and he dated it around 1850. He also appraised it at $200.

Well it has a small sunburst on the back. What's the earliest sunburst we know of??

Ed

WOW. Usually the fancy ones I see are gypsy violins.... What's the gray stuff?

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

How cool is that!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

I seems that some of the German trade instruments are interesting; but not as valuable as we might think they'd be. I see ones that look cool on a violin making forum, and they are 100 bucks or something. Others that look hideous, and need a lot of work are worth a lot. Go figure. It all depends on names. Guitars are probably not that much different.

I wonder if it was some sort of decal that they used. All that was done after that was to inlay the diamonds and curves, and paint the rest with dark varnish. It doesn't even have purfling; not even painted, or scratched in, It was probably done faster than we would imagine. Add a little bling to get a higher price.

_________________
Why be normal?

Neat! I always wondered why things like that can be got for so cheap. It seems that something like that just due to it's age should have some sort of intrinsic value. A few weeks ago a guy came into my shop with an old German violin that he wanted to set up with a pickup that would not feedback. It seemed a shame but then again it was relatively worthless, he ended up filling it in with Great Stuff and you know, it actually worked quite well

Some of the Mittenwald Hornsteiner instruments have some value, and prices have gone up considerably since 1968. French violins don't have the status of the old Italians, but again, can be worth a bit more than pocket change. I once bought a Nicolas Morlot fiddle that had some cracks and finish damage and a loose neck for $15 at a flea market. Had it been in good condition it would have been worth about $5000. I sold it for $600 after reattaching the neck which considering the condition I was happy to get.