Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1918 — EASY TO TELL “FAKE” VIOLIN [ARTICLE]

EASY TO TELL “FAKE” VIOLIN

Close Observation Should Enable Any Musician to Detect Evidences of Fraud Which Is Common. The observant student of the violin is often surprised and disgusted by the number of violins he sees on the market which are purposely “faked” and constructed to represent something which they are not, Robert Alton says in London Musical Times. It is safe to state that 70 per cent at least‘of instruments commonly seen labeled as Betts or Banks or Duke (especially the latter) are “faked" instruments pure and simple, and at the most are not worth more than $5. Yet many instruments of this class are priced at from $25 to $75. A fair idea of the age of a violin may be formed by taking out th? tailpin and noting the color of the blocks and the kind of wood of which they are made. Good violins are fitted with good blocks of pine, well matured before they are put in. Poor blocks betray a cheap, worthless instrument, or a fraud. Imitation cracks in the belly or back may be detected by looking for them on the inside, through the tailpin hole. If they are not showing on the inside be sure they are not real cracks at all, but there for the benefit (or, rather, very much otherwise) of the unwary. .