Archive

More detailed information about stringed instruments and the history of violin making.

Bernard Millant and Le Canu-Millant, Paris: lutherie and expertise

Violin makers and masters: archive "D-F"

The Classical violin bow (The violin bow, part II)

Joseph Alfred Lamy père: a key figure in modern bow making

H. R. Pfretzschner – a biographical sketch

On the history of industrial factories in Mirecourt

Samuel Zygmuntowicz: understanding Stradivarius in New York

Rare French 1/2 viola, approx. 1900

This French 1/2 viola is a beautiful and rare childrens viola after a well-proven Stradivari model, with a body length of 31.3 cm that features sound properties appreciated by many jung musicians. The reddish-brown varnish is very transparent and shining, and as the characteristically shaped scroll it expresses the old 1/2 viola´s provenance from the well-known violin making town of Mirecourt in the Vosges mountains, where it was presumably built in the workshops of Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy (J.T.L.), approx. 1900. The attractive mild flaming of the two-piece back determines the character of the instrument, that is completed by interesting traces of use on the table. They indicate that the 1/2 viola was played by good young musicians who knew the higher ranges very well. The viola, which is in ecellent undamaged condition, was worked over thoroughly in our atelier and is offered ready to play, a special recommendation for its warm, dark, resonant and deep sound.