What is a Strad Copy Violin?

Inside the f-hole on about a gazillion vintage and antique violins on this planet is a stamp or a tag that states:

COPY of Antonius Stradivarius Faciebat Cremona Anno 17??

It may include all of the words here, or fewer or more. The date will not be 17?? It will be dated sometime during the period that Antonio Stradivari made original violins. Sometimes the 17 will be stamped in and then it is left for someone to fill in the last 2 numbers in the date. Sometimes it is filled in with a pen and sometimes it is left blank. In the Mario Cesare Violin Collection we have examples of all of the above. We have other examples where there is no date. But then there may be another tag or stamp saying that it was made in France, Germany, West Germany or Czechoslovakia.

What does this mean? To the uninformed who find one in grandpa’s estate it means they may have found an original Stradivari violin worth millions. All it really means is that it is a violin made using the same dimensions or at least very similar dimension to those used by Antonio Stradivari as its template. That is about the only thing that is consistent about Strad copy violins. It is the differences that define the individual violin and its value.

Stradivarius copy violins have been made from the time the originals were made. Some are almost indistinguishable from the originals and are almost as valuable. However there are millions that are not. They have been made just about everywhere on the planet but there are some that are of note. The ones I am most familiar with is the Strad copies made in Germany from the mid 1800s through the turn of the century. France and Italy were also very active with violin makers at that time but the Germans were the most prolific. After the turn of the century Japan began making violins and followed in the Strad copy tradition. Manufacture continued in Europe and there are many Strad copies marked as made in West Germany and Czecho-Slovakia. "West Germany" indicates that the violin was made after WW II and the hyphen in the Czechoslovakia indicates in which era those violins were made as well.

Where it was made and how that affects the quality is more a function of the quality of wood that was available for the manufacture of the violin. German had beautiful forests of the spruce and maple that is used in violins. The wood grains in the maple are gorgeous and the spruce not only looked good but has the resonance that is so important to the sound of the violin. Other areas were not blessed with such a supply of good wood and therefore the violins made there do not show as well or sound as nice. The best illustration of this fact is that when Suzuki Company began making violins in Japan, the earliest violins were made from wood imported from Europe.

With good material available, the next difference is how the violin is made. Violins are made by hand, in a cottage factory or in a full factory process. The final product always gives clues to the trained eye about how the violin was made and how well the violin was made. How well parts are cut and whether certain parts are included in the manufacture of violins makes a difference on how well it stays together and how it sounds. As with quality today, it is about how much it costs. Quality costs time and money. So a good quality antique Strad copy took more time to assemble and it took more time to make the parts. The better parts were also made of the better quality woods that were available which of course cost more. In cheaper violins, some steps and parts were left out of the process. So there is a full range of quality available in Strad copy violins that survive today.

The bottom line with violins is always the sound. Better quality and better construction techniques and skill of luthiers resulted in a better sounding violins. That is why there are Strad copy violins worth hundreds of dollars and an elite few are worth millions. There is a full range of quality and prices in between. The subtle differences are hard for the untrained eye and ear to decipher. That is why the world of antique violins and Strad copy violins is such an enigma. It is a world fraught with mendacity and deceit. Your best guide when sorting out value in the world of Strad copy violins is a luthier who has a reputation for competence and honesty. Trade only with dealers of the same reputation and always watch out for the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Strad Copy Violins
Violin collection and information about antique violins.