Georg Carl Kretzschmann German Trade Violin circa 1930 -1940

click picture to enlarge

Label:

The violin is a trade instrument with great age. The instrument hails from the lower Bavarian Forest, north of Frankfurt in the small town of Neufirchen. The date on the label is not real. I believe the violin was actually made in Dresden prior to World War II. The maker’s name on the label is the correct spelling of Georg Carl Kretzschmann, who was a violin maker in Markneukirchen from 1730-1783, but our German trade violin has a labeled date of 1795. I originally purchased this violin from Ithaca College former professor of cello, now retired, Jeff Holmes as a violin to restore and spend some time on to get it to play again. Professor Holmes collected instruments from the 1970 through 2014 and had a fine collection of older cellos and violins. One of my connections with him is that I finished a graduate degree at Ithaca not in cello but in double bass in 1993. I have completely gone over the violin, cambering the fingerboard, cutting a new set of pegs, new bridge, post, and reworked the entire set up. The scroll was machine made and there is no neck graft on the violin. The instrument is in good condition with a few cosmetic blemishes in the varnish. The violin has an amber/brown varnish with a touch of orange/brown. The tailpiece is a German Wittner tail with four fine tuners built in to the tail. The two-piece back plate is curly maple and the spruce top is also two pieces and has a straight even grain. This violin boasts unique proportions and measures slightly longer by 3.0 mm. The violin lays well and is easy to play.

Corpus 358.5 mm., Major Width 207.5 mm., Minor Width 166.5 mm., Rib Height 29.0 mm.

The sound is focused, penetrating, and easily fills the room. I would say the sound is balanced, and projects with some guts. I really like the G and D strings, they have some vibrancy, and I could really lay into the instrument. The E and A, the treble side, in many ways out performs the bottom end. The treble side has power and rings very well. I can see this violin getting into American fiddling, Irish fiddle music, and Scottish music because of the clarity and ring of the top strings. This violin might make a very nice second instrument for playing outside. It has an older classic look, it’s European, and the instrument has a nice response.