Scientific dating of violins

I just spotted this article at the BBC website:

A new study appears to have disproved allegations that one of the world's most valuable violins, worth an estimated £10m, is a fake. The instrument, known as the Messiah, is housed at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

A violinmaker friend had been telling us about this a few months back. Tree-ring dating the wood used for musical instruments is apparently a rather new thing (it has been applied for some years to other objects, and has been very useful for dating wooden sculptures, panel paintings, and buildings), and has led to some interesting discoveries. For example, that Stradivarius, along with many other top instrument makers, bought and used their wood without letting it age (also the case with panel paintings, it turns out), and that the top makers also appeared to buy their wood from a common source (violins from different makers have been found to have been made from the same tree).

Posted by David on October 9, 2003 4:16 PM