German violin labelled Stradivarius

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 tone and response. This handsome example is unusual in having a beautiful “birdseye” maple back, with maple ribs sporting a similar, though sparcer figure. The tone is appealing and straightforward, with an easy response and an especially charming character on the middle two strings.