This is my newly acquired supposedly French violin, supposedly by Thibouville Lamy of Mirecourt circa late 19th early 20th century 3/4 size. Its original eBay listing is archived HERE
I bought this nice violin off ebay by way of auction this month (October 2020) for a shade over £100. The violin is a suitable size for the average 9-12 years of age player.
The violin has a lovely original golden vanish. The previous owner bought it a a boot fair some 25 years ago and had it hanging on their wall ever since.
Like so many old violins, including the most expensive in the world, this violin has served as a host for woodworms in the past. Woodworm damage might at times - as some experts think - even improve the tone of a violin by thinning the wood, and creating little channels here and there that transmit sound beyond the dreams of violin makers. The little blighters!
The lava of the furniture beetle (a common woodworm), can only live in and feed on wood that has a moisture content of 20% and above. All woodworms can tolerate moisture as low as 12% but only for short periods. When the moisture level is lower, the infestation ends and the grubs (beetle larvae) stop feeding, may hatch in the spring, but will leave the violin to seek damper wood elsewhere. Violins, neglected and left in cold damp cellars, lofts, garages and sheds are prone to such infection. Bring them in, maybe if you need to repair them, just open them up and dry them out, then and all will be well. I could treat this wood with woodworm killer but will never do that on an instrument held close to the face. I just don't trust the toxicity of such insecticide around humans. I could re-fill this area but that might over time come loose and create a buzz inside the violin. So I will just clean it, check for looseness/weakness and if all is well, ignore it.
The back is a typical being a two-part back. Inside of the back of the violin is cleated. They are the little squares/diamonds of wood glued along the seam. Cleats are normally used to repair cracks. JTL, however typically used cleats this way to strengthen their violins. I have a lovely Manby of London and Paris violin, that I repaired, that was made exactly the same way. I will use seasoned spruce wood to make several cleats like this to fix the cracks on the underside of the face of the violin.
The front (face/table/top) of the violin is cracked in several places. The worst of the cracks is very close to where the sound post will be
I very carefully removed the top of the violin using an old Sheffield steel dinner knife and at times a Sheffield steel horn handled very sharp butter knife.
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The Violin has an integral base bar, carved from the top.
This was usual practice on early violins and in the 19th century
of cheaper Saxony "factory violins". However, the sound of the violin
will unlikely be improved if it had an added replacement "fitted" base bar.
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I am surprised to have found this exact integral sort of base bar in a supposedly higher quality violin, but I've found it in another very similar (non labelled) 3/4 size violin I repaired that sounds incredibly good. My 11 year old daughter, Eleena Sutton, has nabbed that one - absolutely loves it - and replaced her formally beloved 3/4 19th century Maidstone with it.
This sound post crack going to be a tricky repair for a rank amateur like me. However, I have every confidence that with time and care I will be able to do it.
Part 2: The operation in several stages
I decided not to feather a piece of spruce, flush into the region where the sound post will be. Although this is the favoured method (some say the only workable solution), because it can seriously alter the sound of the violin. I don't want to do this unless I have no choice. Therefore, I won't remove the original spruce wood, insert a new piece, and have the sound post conveying the vibrations from the bridge through the glue of a glued patch and sperate piece of wood. Instead, I decided that I will glue the sound post crack using hide glue and all the other cracks at the same time and then clamp the cracks.
Next, I will cleat the cracks on the violin with spruce cleats (studs) that I will cut from seasoned spruce tone wood, sold to make an actual violin top (face/table), that I bought for this sort of repair work.
The exact spot where the sound post will be (the sweet spot is to set it away from the foot of the bridge to the thickness of the violin face in that area and under the foot of the violin, but towards its end rather than central to the foot (as pictured above). This area will not be cleated. The sound post will sit right under the glued crack and will be touching the orignal wood of the underside of the violin's face.
The downside of this option is that it will not be possible for anyone to set the sound post in any other area than a mm or so of that precise location because I want the cleats to be as close as possible to the sound post to prevent the pressure of the sound post on the table (when the strings are tuned) opening up the crack again. If the crack does open when the violin is tuned (which it might well do) then I will have to open the violin all over again and go for the traditional feathered spruce patch option. So my own preferred options comes with quite a risk.
Gluing the cleats over the cracks
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Sanding the cleats into the precise violin contour
prior to gluing and clamping them over cracks. |
Below you can see the first cleats have been cut and glued over cracks. More cleats will be needed along the sound post crack and on other smaller and less significant cracks on various other parts of the violin top. I put fine grade sandpaper where the cleats are to be glued and rub the cleat along it untill the cleat is curved to fit snuggly before gluing it and clamping it into the concave surface of the underside of the face.
Whilst making and gluing the cleats over the various cracks on the violin, I used a peg-hole reamer extremely conservatively and a peg shaver on some antique ebony pegs to get all the pegs fitting and turning and holding nicely. Then I attached the neck back on with hide glue. It was completely unglued when it arrived from the seller on ebay,
I clamped the hide glued neck using 2 from a set of 4 cheap plastic clamps that I bought from the centre aisles at Aldi for around £8. I cut some wine corks into lengthwise slices with a razor sharp wood-carving knife to pad-out the clamping surface so as not to mark the violin with the blue ribbed clamp jaws. You can see the cork pads in the picture above. The vertical clamp is clamping the glued button of the bottom part of the violin to the neck.
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INTERLUDE
Have you heard the Liddle and Aldi song about the danger of their centre aisles?
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You can see above that the cracks have all been cleated with spruce. The grain of the cleats runs in the opposite (crosswise) direction to the grain on the violin's face. This makes them far stronger. Every cleat has been carved down once the clamps were removed, to make them as thin I possible whilst retaining enough strength (hopefully) to keep the cracks closed even with the sound post directly under it.
Before gluing and clamping the face back onto the ribs and back I took the violin over to a bright window and checked over the violin and found several places where the back of the violin needed gluing and clamping. I have made a wonderful tool for checking this. It is made along the lines of a prison shiv. I used pliers to remove one blade form a disposable safety razor and then heated it on the stove then pushed it into the plastic boy whist red hot. You can see it, below, revealing a de-glued point. I found three. The blade is also useful for getting hot hide glue into these seems prior to clamping them untill set (to be on the safe side, assume the glue takes 24 hours to set properly).
In the two unblocked corners the maple has split (so that's why they block corners). This is probably structurally ok but I don't want to risk it buzzing when played. So I glued and clamped it back in place.
I am wondering whether or not this violin is a 19th century fake, made in Saxony or in France. The label is certainty in keeping with the age of the violin. It has the blurry edge ink typical of late 19th century labels made of wood pulp and a patina that matches the inside of the violin. I wonder about it being a 19th century fake Thibouville-Lamy Mirecourt because only the bottom corners are kind of blocked (shoddily). Bottom corner blocks are visible to the customer through the f-holes as signs of proper quality. The top corners cannot be viewed from outside the violin, without removing the bridge and strings and then the endpin and staring in through the endpin hole near a good light source. Not blocking the top corners was a typical cost-cutting factory made trick of the time. Moreover the base bar is carved-in as an integral part of the table (face), which is a sign of a ore cheaply made factory violin. I think it unlikely to be a Jerome Thibouville-Lamy (JTL) because his company claimed to only associate those carrying his full name to be one of their violins.
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| I glued and clamped the peeled maple sides of the top corners back into place |
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On 24th October 2020 the 3/4 size Merecourt violin - having had the soundpost crack repair tested (see above) I hide clued the face back to the body and clamped it up for 48 hours.
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All clamped up
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After gluing and clamping the violin the table was treated to one thin coat of gold spirit varnish (of the kind it was originally varnished with) to ensure the cracks are sealed against moisture. On October 27 2020, it was fitted with a new Wittner lightweight composite tailpiece with four fine tuners, lightweight chinrest, new bridge and new soundpost. It was then strung with Pirastro Tonica strings, because I wanted to compare it with my 11 year old daughter's current antique violin that has them and the exact same Teller bridge with the ebony insert on the E-string.
My youngest daughter, Eleena is at Grade 2 violin. She played the Merecourt and had to admit it seriously rivals (in truth it surpasses) her unlabelled small 7/8th, large 3/4 violin that I rescued, fixed, and which she then nabbed in favour of her previously favourite 19th century Maidstone 3/4. In my opinion, the Merecourt has a clearly sweeter tone, and it is not even yet settled in. The strings, bridge, sound post and tailpiece will all settle in over the next few days. After that and some playing-in of the strings we will know just how good the Merecourt is. But I can say one thing. And that is dear reader "The patient is cured!" Now it just needs to find a new talented and committed owner who will really enjoy and appreciate its superior qualities.
You can see the fixed sound post crack, Now just a healed battle scar.
Follow up investigation on the label: 🔍
Expert Luthiers and other experts on violins determine this violin is most likely a fake with a hand pen inked - or else made via a rubber stamp - label probably forged in the 19th century or else probably added later. See the entire discussion
here. where I come in for some good humoured hazing but learn a great deal of interesting information in the process. I reckon they are right and label most likely was made with a rubber stamp - or maybe even a lino stamp? Although others there think it was hand penned. All of this just goes to show how interesting the whole fake or bogus labelling of violins issue is. To some at least.
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