Violin Forum/Message Board

[cbaker71476]

I acquired a beautiful old violin in an estate sale. The auctioneers originally stated it was from the 1920's by Bausch. I've been investigating the piece. Here's what I have so far:

The bow has a stamp: WIELDICH - letters are all caps, but the E is an outline E, not solid
The violin has an extremely aged, cracked label inside that reads:
Copy of Antonius Stradivarius Made in Germany 5355
There appears to be "1750" or "1756" hand-written in the upper-right corner of the label, though the corner is missing.

The violin is in wonderful condition (fine, well-repaired split on lower bout), with absolutely exquisite tiger-striping on the back, sides and neck.
The only reference to "Bausch" is the name on the bridge, so I assume that has nothing to do with the violin itself. The case was made by M&W, and has a trademark stamp "July 1893". The case also had a Gretsch ad inside...for the "new" Stratographic acoustic guitar (it was "new" in the early-40's!). There was an aged, cracked tortoise-shell chinrest in the case, though the violin chinrest looks newer.

After exhaustive research, the closest name I've come up with is Friedrich August Weidlich, who died in 1897. I'm 100% certain that is not the spelling on the bow.

Can anyone help me solve this mystery? Any info on the maker? Year? I've been to libraries and hours on the internet. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! I'd be happy to e-mail beautiful pictures of the violin.

[Jack H.]

The violin is most likely post WWI pre WWII German made,.
After WWI the law stated that German products had to be marked as such. Post WWII there was the differentiation of west and east Germany.
These violins were made by the hundreds of thousands as student violins. Sounds like it is some good wood, and sometimes with a bit of work these violins can be made to sound very good. Most likely made in Markneukirchen, a large center for violin production.

The bow is also most likely of similar origin, German. but the date of it would be a lot harder to pin down... Most likely factory made due to the misspelling of the name.