The Stringed Instrument Company ♡

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...

While the many hundreds of thousands of “Stradivari” copy violins made in the workshops of the German Vogtland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were generically similar, the choice of wood and the different construction methods of the time give considerable variation in...

Of the hundreds of thousands of violins made in the Vogtland area of eastern Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many were labelled with the names of the great Cremonese makers, Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesu and Nicolo Amati. One great German maker joined this triumvirate, ...

Western Czechoslovakia, like its Saxon counterparts on the other side of the German border, boasted a major violin making centre in Schönbach. The city, now known as Luby, was home to a number of large musical instrument workshops which, in their heyday, produced around one hundred and fifty thou...

This fine, late nineteenth century French violin was made in the workshop of Emile Mennesson, who recruited an elite core of luthiers to create over 3000 high-quality violins, violas and cellos under the conjoint names of Mennesson and Guarin. Over the years, these instruments won a number of medals...

Peter Wamsley was one of the more prominent English violin makers of the later part of the seventeenth century through to the early-mid eighteenth century. He was appointed violin maker to the Prince of Wales before retiring in 1741 after a long and illustrious career. This violin, inspired by the w...

Malcolm Collins has established a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most prolific professional violin makers. This instrument is a good example of his later work, with an exquisitely flamed maple back and a golden orange-red oil varnish. The Guarneri-style modelling gives the lower registers r...

Gaetano Gadda, one of Italy’s most prolific and important twentieth century violin makers, was the heir and only true pupil of Stefano Scarampella. In 1940 when this violin was made, Scarampella still exerted a huge influence on Gadda’s work, despite his death 15 years before. This can be ...

Adrian Studer trained at the Swiss Violin Making School in Brienz and moved to New Zealand in the mid-1980s, where he rapidly established himself as one of our finest violin makers. Most of his violins since the mid-1990’s have been based on the work of Storioni, but this instrument, made in 20...

Thomas Warren was one of New Zealand’s most prominent and productive violin makers in the late twentieth century, establishing a reputation for technical excellence that few other New Zealand makers could match or surpass.  This lovely example has a rich, clear, resonant tone across all the fo...

In our opinion, Telemann violins, made in China with European know-who, and then finished with our own professional set up, are the best quality-for-money instruments we have come across in a long while. Our new Telemann Concerto violins are a step up from the Telemann Sonata outfits, and are finish...

Maurizio Tadioli is a native-born and trained Cremonese violin maker, who has built up an impressive list of prizes and awards for his instruments, both for his workmanship, which is beautifully executed, and for their tone. His varnishing and antiquing skills draw on the expertise of Samuel Zygmunt...