ALLEGED “STRADS.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 138, 15 May 1925, Page 4

ALLEGED “STRADS.”

BOGUS ONES TURNED OUT BY THOUSANDS. AUCKLAND, May 13. There iff a custom in the violin trade which causes much chagrin to numbers of people. Last month a lady at Rpngiora let it be known that she had an old violin labelled inside, “Antonius Stradivarius, cremonensis faciba.t, Anmg 1742.” She was followed by a Matamata man, who found that an old instrument which he had had for years bore a like inscription, but the date was 1729. Now- an Onehung.a resident, who must be either a wag or easily deceived, writes to say that he has a violin labelled as a St,rad, dated 1713, but that the label also bears the words ‘ ‘Made in Czechoslovakia.” As a matter of fact, a “Stradivarius” label inside a violin means nothing except probably that the instrument is factory made. A reporter who called on one nf the leading dealers of Auckland was told all about it at once. By good luck he found a group of four men discussing an old fiddle with a “Strad” label, and was invited to look into its inside and see for himself, "The trouble about this,” said the dealer, “is that it is dated two years after Stradivarius died. This fiddle was no more made by Stradivarius than that banjo over there.” “Yes,” said another of the group, pulling out a wallet, “and what’s more, you can buy a label without a violin.” He produced a small piece of dingy paper inscribed with the magic name, and a date in the eighteenth century. “Where can one get those labels?” asked the reporter. “Ah,” said the connoisseur knowingly, “that would be telling.”

The dealer took up the theme at this stage. “Violins with that, mark are being turned out by thousands,” he said, “and have been for yfears. They cqrae from factories everywhere in Germany, France, Italy and even Japan; all brand new, top. There is not one chance in a thousand that a violin labelled ‘Strad’ is even possibly genuine.”