Old Saxony Trade Violin, circa 1890-1900 – Gorgeous!

click picture to enlarge

Label:

We have a beautiful Saxony Violin made in the Dresden area of old-world Germany. The violin was produced by the C. F. Schuster & Son firm near the area of Dresden and has the pine branch trademark for the company on the label.
The instrument was made at the turn of the 20th century and is in very good condition. The back is of nicely flamed maple formed in two pieces and has a medium-width flame. The ribs match the degree of flame to that of the back. The arching and graduation of the plates is spot on for Stradivarius modeling. The spruce top plate has a consistent 2.0 mm wide straight grain and the varnish work is oil and has antiquing work found during this period. The varnish, all done with brush work, is an amber orange/ brown all superimposed on a golden amber base coat. We have gone over the entire instrument here in our workshop and cut all new fittings for the violin in African ebony. The violin has no issues and is in excellent condition.

Corpus 358.0 mm., Major Width206.0 mm., Minor Width 166.0 mm., Rib Height 30.0 mm.

The violin jumps, with great power in all the voicing and a bold focused sound. The instrument responds well even with a lighter touch in the bow. Its core is strong, responsive, and the colors of the E and A strings lean to lighter shades of blue and red – not too bold. The treble side is slightly bright while the G and D strings are as impressive and solid like oak or African mahogany. This violin will do well with a fiddler looking to have strength of tone and rapid response as well as the orchestral player needing an instrument that allows you to work less to produce a desired sound as well as being very comfortable to play.