I have a violin labeled Stradivari (or Amati, Stainer, da Salo, Guarneri, etc). Is it real?
The mere presence of a label inside a violin does not prove that the violin was made by that particular maker. For example, hundreds of thousands of mass-produced violins made in Germany, France, central, and eastern Europe, as early as the mid-19th century and even to the present day, have been provided with copies of labels bearing the names of famous 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century makers such as Stradivari, Vuillaume, Amati, Bergonzi, Guarneri, Gasparo da Salò, Stainer, and others. Music shops and mail order houses have sold these violins with no intent to deceive the buyer as to their origin; however, they do indeed capitalize upon the notoriety of the makers whose patterns and labels they imitate. These violins turn up in attics and closets worldwide, often providing their owners with a brief period of hopeful anticipation. Their similarity to authentic instruments by the master luthiers is minimal to the trained eye. Although some of these violins may be good, serviceable instrum
