When was Dendrochronology applied for the first time to the dating of musical instruments?
top The first attempt at including dendrochronological methods in research on musical instruments was made by Lottermoser and Meyer who, in 1958 published a note in the journal “Instrumentenbau Zeitschrift” on the ring patterns of the bellies of three Stradivari violins: one was the Lady Blunt and the two were Guarneris by Peter, Andrea’s son. Lottermoser and Meyer did not have to date the instruments, as this had already been done. Only photographs were used, not the actual instruments. The researchers carried out a number of tests and built five tree-ring curves. From an analysis they carried out, unsupported by precise examples, they concluded that the bellies of the three Stradivaris and the Guarneris came from single trunks. Basically, in both cases the violin makers, having found a particularly valuable trunk of wood, used pieces from it at different times for different instruments. Thirty years later, a analysis done by Corona in 1989 of the curves built by Lottermoser and Meyer
