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Originally Posted by Eric Hochberg
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Post #1, is a Violin shaped bass by Wenzel Wilfer, Germany. That is my guess. Your bass may or may not be Wilfer but a similar style in a Gamba. The Master Art basses however were highly figured Violin cornered basses, not Gambas.
So, '1956 Czech' is the first smoking gun and then the Gamba shape labeled as 'Master Art' is another. I have a 1965 page from Vitale Imports showing a Master Art bass. The flame is a grade or two above the bass in post 1 of your link. Juzek was an importer. So was Vitale who sold to shops. Maybe his business competed with Juzek as well. It is obvious to me from the advertisement that they bought from the same source.
Your Bass looks nice but nothing like any Wilfer/Juzek I have seen. There were other shops making nice basses over there as well. If Juzek was in the business of buying mainly 3/4 plain-Jane gamba basses for the NYC Schools then maybe they were the lower end carved basses produced in Germany then.
I think the aim of Juzek was student grade instruments. I first heard of them in Jr High school from my teacher in Miami Beach, 1965. He was from Miami and a retired pro bassist. He showed me the old Juzek catalog at 50% off list prices and told me what to buy there when I went to NY for the remainder of the Summer. I ended up moving back to NY and stayed there. The Juzek basses and Violins, etc. were promoted to the Schools.
Having a Bass that is NOT a Juzek is no indication of having something less. In many cases or possibly most cases, you have something better than what they offered unless it was an upper line model made by Wilfer, Juzek or other brand name.
On the Flatback Juzek subject I have read that they did import some lower end basses in Flatback but that must have been before the War. I think the troubles that Flatbacks produce may have ended that model with Juzek fairly quickly if it ever even happened. Labels have a way of finding their way into basses where they don't belong! The catalog I saw in '65 had only roundbacks.