Violin (3/4 size)

1898 - 1902

This three-quarters size violin was made in Mittenwald, Germany around 1900. This is an instrument of commercial Mittenwald manufacture. As the classic tradition of violin-making waned during the first half of the 19th Century, makers like Ludwig Neuner (1840-1897) collaborated with other Mittenwald workmen to meet the demand for new instruments. Neuner, a gifted craftsman who spent six years in Paris working for J. B. Vuillaume, returned to Mittenwald in 1884 and enlarged the commercial firm of Neuner & Hornsteiner. Under his leadership, over 200 employees were used to meet the international demand for commercial as well as finely crafted instruments. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce, back of maple in two pieces with mild, irregular horizontal figure, ribs of similar maple, neck, pegbox and scroll of mildly figured maple, and a shaded opaque yellow-brown varnish.