The Stringed Instrument Company ♡

The Utah workshops of JonPaul bows have played a major part in pioneering the development of good quality carbonfibre bows, and their “Arpege” model has been central to this journey. It was recently dropped from their catalogue as they added new styles, but such has been the outcry from vi...

The Utah-based company JonPaul Bows has, over the years, made a name for itself as a workshop producing high-class carbon-fibre bows. More recently, JonPaul has started sourcing and distributing a range of bows for the student market. Their visually stunning “Fusion” bows blend technology ...

Founded by Aegidius Dörfler four generations ago, the Dörfler workshops are still owned and operated by the Dörfler family, and produce a wide range of good-quality bows. Their #15 model bows, made from selected pernambuco, are designed for students advancing through the intermediate grades...

This professional-level violin bow, with its octagonal, selected pernambuco stick and elegant, silver-mounted frog, is something of a mystery. It is tempting to assume “J.K.” stands for “Joseph Kun”, but there are no records of this stamp being used by the late Canadian master bo...

This elegantly made, silver-mounted violin bow, stamped “JF Lee”, is made by prize-winning archetier JianFeng Li, who studied with the prominent American bow maker John Norwood Lee before establishing his own studio in the north-eastern Chinese port city of Ningbo. His bows have won prizes...

The JonPaul workshops in Salt Lake City, Utah, are widely known for their pioneering, high-class carbonfibre bows, designed for advanced and advancing students. More recently they have expanded their range upwards, with a small team of three expert traditional bow makers creating fine master bows fr...

The Coda Bow workshop, based in the US, has been one of the pioneers of carbonfibre bow manufacture, focusing on the middle grade to advanced student range. This “Diamond SX” model bow has excellent playing characteristics, with a clean spiccato and sautillé action which we feel is supe...

 Popov trained in his home town of Plovdiv before moving with his family to the USA in 2000. After ten years gathering experience in other violin workshops, he established Orpheus Violins in Virginia, where he continues to make and restore good instruments and bows. This fine violin bow is made fro...

Bows made by the world-famous violin workshops of W.E. Hill and Sons come in four different quality rankings, each one indicated by the stamp on the stick above the frog. The full stamp “W.E. Hill and Sons” on this bow shows us that this is one of their first grade bows, while the figure �...

Small violins that sound well are increasingly popular with young students who have already been studying violin for several years and have made good progress. This example is based on an old Italian model but with strong characteristics of Saxon making from the Klingenthal/Markneukirchen workshops ...

This skilfully-made, German violin, midway between a half and a three quarter size, has a sound to match its elegant appearance – refined yet clear and bell-like across all four strings. The maple back has an attractive, narrow flame. The violin comes with a lightweight case and a Carbondix bow.

Giovanni Lazzaro is a pre-eminent Italian violin maker who is also sought after for his highly skilled and sophisticated restoration work, and in-depth understanding of tonal adjustment, working for many leading musicians from Italy’s finest ensembles. In 1985, he graduated with full marks from...

Giovanni Lazzaro is a pre-eminent Italian violin maker who is also sought after for his highly skilled and sophisticated restoration work, and in-depth understanding of tonal adjustment, working for many leading musicians from Italy’s finest ensembles. In 1985, he graduated with full marks from...

Joseph Hel trained with Sebastien Vuillaume, nephew of the famous Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, before setting up his own workshop in Lille in 1865, where he established himself as one of France’s pre-eminent nineteenth century violin makers. Numerous awards and prizes were crowned when he was made ...

Charles Jean-Baptiste Collin-Mezin is one of the more well-known French makers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His own work, culminating in a Grand Prix in 1900, enabled him to expand his workshop, employing a small number of skilled luthiers in Mirecourt to make the subsequent...

Emanuel Whitmarsh established his London workshop in 1856, making a large number of violins in the following half century before his death in 1908. This vibrant-sounding example is typical of his work, with its broad modelling and its edges carved in the French style. The tone is striking and charac...

Andrea Cabrini graduated from the International School of Violin Making Antonio Stradivari in Cremona in 1991, then worked with the master violin maker Francesco Bisselotti, a pupil of Pietro Sgarabotto before setting up his own workshop in the heart of Cremona. His work, as a result, is firmly grou...

This is an early violin by Malcolm Collins, one of New Zealand’s most prolific contemporary professional violin makers. Malcolm trained with Ian Sweetman before developing his own, distinctive style, hallmarked by crisply-cut edges in the French Stradivari style, and a subtly coloured oil varni...

Rushworth and Dreaper, founded in 1828, were makers and dealers in violins, employing a large staff of luthiers under the direction of William Henry Bird, as well as importing instruments from good workshops in Europe. This German-made “Artist Apollo” violin is one of their more prestigiou...

Jay Haide violins, viola and cellos are the inspiration of Jay Ifshin of Ifshin Violins, California. In 1992, Jay realised they could make their own in-house, handmade instruments for the middle and upper student market, and do a better job than the traditional commercial makers in Europe and Asia. ...

Ernst Glaesel founded Glaesel and Mossner, one of the better commercial workshops in Markneukirchen, in 1873, making a number of grades and styles of violin family instruments. This late nineteenth century example has a surprisingly lovely sound, resonant but smooth and creamy, with a very appealing...

The famous eighteenth century English maker Richard Duke has been widely imitated, with his “Stainer” style modelling reproduced with varying success by generations of Vogtland workshops. Happily, this German violin, stamped “DUKE LONDON” below the button, follows a more graceful...

Scott Cao student instruments are the brainchild of internationally recognised violin maker Scott Shu-Kun Cao. California-based Cao has, in addition to his own personal workshop, three other workshops making different grades of instruments. One is also in California, while the other two are in China...

The luthiers of the Herold family were mostly based in Brunndöbra, a region in Saxony adjacent to Klingenthal and close to the Czech border. Carl Anton Herold established his business in Klingenthal in 1833, where his workshop produced and exported many instruments of good student quality over th...