How Can I Learn More about the Make and Origin of My Grandfather's Violin?

That is a very good question. The best way to find out about a violin is to take it to a violin shop for an evaluation. Many violins have a label glued to the back on the inside. However, the label is the last thing that a violin expert will look at. It is easy to put a false label in an instrument and therefore they can prove to be very misleading. In some cases a maker will brand their name or mark in an instrument and that can help with identification.

A violin dealer typically has seen hundreds or even thousands of instruments and bases their opinion on their recollection of viewing all of these instruments over time. Because violin forgery has been going on for well over a century, the best way to find out about your instrument is to take it to someone with knowledge in violin identification. The patina of an instrument can help date the violin, however, there are many methods that violin makers use to make new instruments look a few hundred years old. You can look at pictures of instruments in books and on the web but unless you have a well trained eye to spot very small details specific to certain makers chances are good that you could come to some wrong conclusions.

There are thousands of violins in circulation that were made between 1880 and 1930 that have labels from the old masters such as Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, Steiner, Bergonzi, Schweitzer, Vuillaume, etc. The label in some cases simply means that this instrument was built on that particular maker's pattern and in some cases was meant to deceive the buyer.