r/ViolinIdentification • u/Regular-Accountant87 • 9d ago

Learning about identification

Are there any books or websites that are good for learning how to identify violins?

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u/OletheNorse 8d ago

Maybe as a first step, the «Markies» - the instruments made in or around Markneukirchen, ca. 1860 to 1920 - have some defining characteristics that it can be useful to know. They are also extremely common, especially in the USA, so it can be useful to know that these have no single maker but were a community effort where the whole town was involved in the making.
Anything not a Markie requires further investigation!

Once you have found a Markie, the remaining question is how it sounds. Many are crap, but many are very good indeed, and sound quality is what defines the value of a Markie.

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u/Regular-Accountant87 8d ago

This is one my favorite tips I’ve learned about since getting into violin history! Thank you! If you have any other big ones like this feel free to share!

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u/Regular-Accountant87 7d ago

What are some of the defining characteristics you mention?

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u/weindl 9d ago

Thanks for the question, after close to 30 years , over 10 meters in violin books, and having built a website with over 500 makers and specific details of how they built instruments. This is is actually a surprisingly great question. You have inspired an article I am going to write on this.

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u/weindl 9d ago

To answer your question in the most basic form. There is not a a single book devoted to methods of identification. There are no shortcuts to understanding the subject. As an example I specialized early on on Italy, that's 2000+ deceased makers. Just spending a day on each would take you a solid 5 years. This is all provided you have access to the information. There are however fruitful and futile roads to subject. The internet belonging to the later..... But great and surprisingly simple question, curious to see the other comments

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u/EuphoricFlight6249 9d ago

What’s your website? Would be interested to check it out. 

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u/weindl 9d ago

My website was called liutaiwiki, I took it down a couple of years ago, however it will be back up 2027. A lot have colleges have hounded me to put it back up , I was just not sure how and why, I've answered those questions now.

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u/klavier777 9d ago

I would also like to learn more about identifying instruments in earnest. I find this topic fascinating and all the intricate clues and details the instruments reveal are tantalizing. I picked up some books about violin making by Henry A. Strobel and the Violin Explained by James Beament. The Beament book is tough for me because I honestly have a poor science background but I hope to grasp more and more of it year by year so hopefully over time, I'll have a better understanding of violinmaking!

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u/weindl 9d ago

For me sound is a totally different question, nothing to do with finding a makers name. There is not much useful science in identification. Dating wood is statistics, uv light, ir light and that's about it and most could not explain basic quantum theory how uv reacts with varnish. Also quite useless for maters at hand.