Stump The Chump

[Ken McKay]

Any similarites here?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Ken McKay

Any similarites here?

Well, the upper and lower left are both Cornerless basses attributed to Storioni. This I know as one of them is mine. The other was featured in the 'Strad' some time ago and is listed on 'Cozio', 7th page (and Elgar). The FFs are similar on both Basses but not exact. Storioni is listed as never making 2 instruments alike. No forms or molds were ever used as he built them from the 'blocks'! In this case, the 'blocks' were at opposite ends. He also never made or placed the FFs on two instruments alike and is listed as being less Cremona and more Neapolitan-like as far as the Varnish goes. However, he IS known as the last great Cremona maker regardless of all his flaws and inconsistencies.

The two on the right are a Violin and maybe a Cello?, the upper right? The lower looking more Guarnieri-like as that was a maker he followed but never copied exactly. The upper right could be him but nothing similar to the others. The Varnish shows some skill. Remember that Alessandro Gagliano (and one of his brothers) who founded the Neapolitan school (who Storioni is 'accused' of varnishing in the manner of) trained in Cremona and even worked for quite some time (maybe 20 years, Alessandro) in the workshop of Stradivari himself.

I do not claim to know Storioni or his work but I do guess that the riddle Mr. McKay is on this maker, especially when you list 2 attr. Storioni's in the pack.

I showed pics of my Bass to both Fernando Grillo and Sergio Scaramelli and they both said it was a 'beautiful Storioni'. That's a good day for me when the Italians talk like that..

More Cornerless talk here, here and here..

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Originally Posted by Ken McKay

Any similarites here?

Yes, all four have f-holes.

[Ken McKay]

Arnolds post should have been first to give Mr Smith a clue.

Got to admit though this is fun. I should have said the rules up front.

1. if you know the answer, hold out for a while.

2. You don't have to be an expert to play.

3. any little guess is fair game.

Framing the ff holes and it is possible to see the similarities that get lost ordinarily in the overall shape, varnish, etc...

Yes these are all Lorenzo Strorioni instruments.
Clockwise from top right: Ken's cornerless, 1778 cello, 1780-85 violin, 1791 double bass from a photo in strad. The rest of the photos are on cozio.

[Ken McKay]

Look at the next post for the montage.

Left photo is from an L Storioni 1/2 sized violin 1793 http://www.usd.edu/smm/Violins/Stori...oniViolin.html

Top right is a L Storioni 4/4 violin 1782 listed for sale at Kolstein http://kolstein.cybrhost.com/mm5/mer...ry_Code=violin

Bottom left is L Storioni viola "probably" http://www.artfact.com/catalog/viewLot.cfm?sample=4419

Bottom right L Storioni violin 1781 http://laurentius_storioni_cremona.geigenmacher.eu/

[Ken McKay]

Here is the montage

[Ken McKay]

For those interested in violins and music in general Arnold Steinhardt wrote a great book about his life and choosing his L storioni violin over a dG . It comes with a cd of him playing Bach. The violin is a cut down viola and looks odd, but the sound is from heaven. It has a smokey voice that I really like.
http://www.amazon.com/Violin-Dreams-.../dp/0618368922

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Ken McKay

Here is the montage

Nothing is similar to me except that they are all violin family instruments. They are all different. If these are supposed Storioni's as in the first group of 4, how do we really know that they are actual confirmed Storioni's? Because they are claimed to be?