Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshua Phelps
I love violin corners & round back. Visually the bass is beautiful but I tend to like a darker varnish myself. What do you think of the lighter colored instruments like this one?
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It was a tradition that all better instruments were done with transparent amber varnish so as not to hide a single detail and to pass your masters test, it was a requirement. I have owned a few master grade instruments with various shades of amber and they were beautiful.
In researching Kreutzer's history, his teacher J. Werner came originally from Schonbach and trained there with V. Lutz whose brother made Double Basses. So, I can't say who made what for who from the earlier generations but Werner later headed up the Lidl firm in Brno as well. Kreutzer is also listed as one of the masters that passed thru Lidl so it was there I assume that he worked and trained with Werner.
Kruetzer seems to have had a rich life in violin culture working for firms, associations and shops from Zurich, Germany and Brno (Czech/Moravia) as well as being directly or indirectly associated with various Court makers from Vienna to Schonbach (Luby).
I am thankful for having spent good money on my collection of books. I hunted all of them down within the used market because they went out of print almost as fast as they were written. The Henley book unfortunately is limited when it comes to the vast majority of makers from the German, Czech, Moravian and Austrian schools. It seems only the majors and a few others get listed. I have two complete books for just these areas (German/Austrian makers and Bohemian/Moravian makers) and also another 2 book set of all the makers worldwide by Jalovec. The only two books I need to open my own Violin Library is one on Hungarian makers and one on the Spanish makers. At about $300 or so per book IF you can find them, it gets expensive. To list what I have already took hours and 4 books from Jalovec. The Henley book gave no additional information on the Brno/Moravian makers at all. I am still not done tracing all of each of the named makers/shops roots but the a nutshell, this guy Kruetzer didn't just crawl out of the woodwork.
He crawled INTO it..
