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Scott Cao’s Guangzhou-made factory instruments are fully hand-carved under the supervision of Cao’s own students. The SCV35 series instruments are made with selected spruce and well-flamed maple, fitted with Indian ebony pegs and fingerboard, and finished with a honey-brown varnish. This attract...

The quality of the better Chinese student instruments, in both workmanship and tone, has improved enormously over the ‘last two decades or so with strong input from both foreign violin makers and Chinese luthiers who have been trained in Europe and the USA. This appealing ½-sized violin, with its...

We have been very impressed with the Paganini 500 violins we have set-up and sold – the tone and the playability are wonderful for the price. Now that we are stocking the Paganini 1000 range at very little extra cost, we are even more pleased.These instruments improve on the Paganini 500 in all ar...

This well-made ¾ sized violin has no label but was almost certainly made in Germany in the mid-twentieth century. The varnish is an attractive honey colour, with imped edge in the German style of that period. The belly is of well-selected spruce, cut accurately on the quarter. The tone is warm and ...

Joseph Charles Chipot was a fine Mirecourt luthier working in the Collin-Mézin workshop before establishing his own business. Eager to promote his instruments, he made use of his wife’s maiden name, Vuillaume, even through her father was a Parisian shoemaker and no relation to the famous violin m...

This beautiful example of Guilio Degani’s output has all the hallmarks of his best violin making work, with the bell-like glow typical of his instruments complemented by brilliance and projection, making it a wonderful performance violin for a professional player. Guilio was trained by his father ...

When Malcolm Collins died in April 2025, he had only recently completed his final instruments, evidence of his passionate commitment to violin making. This handsome Guarneri model violin, with its vividly-flamed maple back and ribs, dates from his middle period, and is carved with simplicity and an ...

The great violin making towns of the Vogtland in north eastern Germany and what is now the Czech Republic, produced many thousands of violins every year for eager students all over the world. The vast majority of them, like this carefully-maintained example, have found, multiple homes over the last ...

Good quality Chinese violins of all sizes with selected European wood and attractive, lightly antiqued varnish are providing an increasing range of great student instruments at very affordable prices. This lovely ¾ violin, with its handsomely flamed one-piece maple back isa fine example of the genr...

Czech violin making is mostly associated with the town of Sch ö nbach, and its close connection with the nearby German Vogtland towns of Klingenthal and Markneukirchen. But, in the east, the Forberger family of luthiers established themselves in the Bohemian town of Svitavy, making violins and othe...

This charming old violin, modelled after Jacob Stainer’s instruments, was made in the German Vogtland at least 150 years ago. The high arching and narrow waist, typical of this style, give the tone clarity and sweetness, complemented by a bell-like quality on the D string and an unexpectedly granu...

In the 1890’s, the English company Beare and Sons purchased violins from the French violin making town of Mirecourt, and labelled them with the name of a fictitious Italian: “Guiseppe Maravelli", adding verisimilitude with a half-handwritten date, to distinguish them from their undated, commerci...

Highly experienced German-born violin maker Annette Voll trained at the world-renowned violin making school in Mittenwald. After graduating in 1994, she expanded her knowledge and skill in workshops in Netherlands and New Zealand, gaining her German Master’s Certificate in 2002, before establishin...

New Zealand Luthier Richard Panting began his career as a professional violinist in the NZSO before taking up orchestra positions in the UK, Scandinavia and Australia. He then pursued his other passion, violin making, training with the prominent Waikato luthier Noel Sweetman. Over the following twen...

Trained by Nicolas-Francois Vuillaume the brother of that colossus of French violin making Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Charles Jean-Baptiste Collin-Mezin made a name for himself in Paris in the final decades of the nineteenth century with several notable prizes for his violins. This beautifully-made ex...

This fine violin, modelled after Guarneri del Gesu, was made by contemporary American maker Mitchell McCarthy, a 2012 graduate of the Red Wing Violin Making and Repair programme in Minnesota who worked extensively in the USA before immigrating to New Zealand. The violin has a one-piece back of Balka...

Gustave Eugene Villaume, not to be confused with the rather more famous Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, was nonetheless a very skilled violin maker. Trained by Mouquet and Jaquet Gand, his work typifies good French handmaking of the early twentieth century, confirmed by the prizes he won in Mirecourt befor...

While many nineteenth and twentieth century German violins carry the names of the great Cremonese makers, Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati, it is refreshing to come across one attributed to the Tarin maker Goffredo Cappa, even when it is dated four years earlier than this maker’s birth date. This vi...

The Schuster family was founded by Georg Schuster, born in 1685 and established as a master violin maker in the Markneukirchen guild of violin makers by 1748. John Dilworth lists no less than 29 of his descendants in his violin and bow makers dictionary, working from the eighteenth century though to...

Good 7/8th sized violins are rare, and when one turns up that sounds like a full-sized instrument, it’s something to celebrate. This attractive example, with its subtly antiqued, golden red-brown varnish and finely-flamed, one-piece maple back, is Amatese in style, with the elegant, silvery clarit...

Jay Ifshin, of Ifshin Violins, California, realised, back in 1992, that they could make their own, in-house, handmade instruments for the middle and upper student market, and do a better job than the traditional commercial makers in Europe and Asia. In our experience, the resulting “Jay Haide" ins...

Highly experienced German-born violin maker Annette Voll trained at the world-renowned violin making school in Mittenwald. After graduating in 1994, she expanded her knowledge and skill in workshops in the Netherlands and New Zealand, gaining her German Master’s Certificate in 2002, before establi...

It is rare to find a small-sized violin with the depth and resonance of a full-sized instrument, and this handsome ¾ violin is one of these delightful exceptions. Well-selected tone wood is enhanced by a soft, honey-coloured varnish. The violin is easy to play and very even over all four strings, w...

This well-loved ¾ sized violin was made in the Vogtland region, an area famous for its violin-making workshops, their expertise and industry shared between Germany and what became Czechoslovakian after WWI. This instrument was almost certainly made in the Czech city of Schoenbach, snow called Luby,...