Antonio Stradivari (1644(?) – December 18, 1737) was an Italian manufacturer of stringed instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas, and harps. He is generally considered the foremost craftsman in this field.
Stradivari is believed to have been responsible for the production of some 1,100 different instruments. About 650 of these are believed to have survived and of these more than 500 are violins.
The dream of every yard sale prowler and thrift store shopper is to find that long-lost Stradivarius violin and reap the millions of dollars that would result from such a find. Unfortunately, many unsuspecting buyers make the mistake of finding one of the thousands upon thousands of reproductions that have been produced and, thinking they found the real deal, pay too much for an imitation.
Most of these reproductions were built in Czechoslovakia or Germany from the early 19th century to around 1920 and number in the tens of thousands. The vast majority of these are labeled “Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Year” with a handwritten or printed date underneath. These labels are affixed to the inside of the violin and are clearly visible through the “f-hole”.
These are “Stradivarius” style violins or reproductions. When they were produced, they were not really intended to mislead the buyer. It was more of a marketing ploy to indicate that the violin was designed from the originals made by Antonio Stradivari.
Due to this fact, the date on “f-hole” labels is usually correct as to the year the instrument was produced. A label dated 1865 should be a clue that this is a reproduction, since Stradivari died in 1737.
When the original purchaser was buying this violin, they knew they were buying an instrument that was a cheap copy of a priceless Stradivarius and not a real one. Over the years, the facts regarding these knock-offs were forgotten, and thus a wave of “found” Strads began to appear at antique stores, pawn shops, and garage sales.
Many of these have labels printed in English to comply with US import regulations at the time. If your Strad has an English label, it was not made by an 18th-century Italian string instrument maker.
On most of his violins, Stradivari used a label printed with the last 2 numbers of the year, it was done by hand in ink or pencil.
If you are looking at a labeled Stradivarius violin, you can be 99.99% sure that it is one of these fake instruments. Of the approximately 500 violins known to have been made by Antonio Stradivari, only a whole handful are unaccounted for. They are believed to have been lost or stolen and have never been recovered.
Beginning in March 1891, following the enactment of the McKinley Tariff Act, all goods imported into the US were required to be marked in English with the country of origin. In 1914, the Tariff Act was amended to make the words “Made in” mandatory in addition to the country of origin. This was not rigorously enforced until around 1921, so some pre-1921 pieces can still be found without the added “Made In”. If your violin is labeled with a country of origin, it was most likely made after 1891 and is most likely a Stradivarius “Style” Violin or fake.
As the US market was the largest at the time, most musical instrument manufacturers scrambled to comply with the Tariff Act and produced thousands of these “Made In” labeled Stradivarius copies during the last years of the century. XIX and beginning of the XX. .
The quality of these reproductions varies greatly from very good to very poor. Current market values for these late 19th and early 20th century Strads vary greatly. Its value depends on the quality of construction, condition and sound. This is something that would have to be determined by a specialist dealing with stringed instruments.
That said, I often see these German or Czechoslovakian copies selling for less than $75.00 at auction. However, if you have one of these knockoffs, all may not be lost. Do some research on the bow as I have seen $2,500.00 bows with $75.00 violins.
Today, an authentic Stradivarius can sell for a huge amount of money. One of his most famous pieces is a violin which he completed in 1721 and is known as “Lady Blunt”. It was named after Lord Byron’s granddaughter, Lady Anne Blunt, who owned it for 30 years. The “Lady Blunt” sold on July 21, 2011 for $15,932,115.00 at the Tarisio Auction. It was sold by the Nippon Music Foundation in aid of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.