The Baron Knoop, Fulton Stradivari Violin

THE BARON KNOOP, FULTON STRADIVARI VIOLIN

A new series of folders, designed to become an irreplaceable work tool for luthiers and to admire some of the most important instruments in the history of Italian violin making thanks to the life-size photographs and macrophotography in visible and UV light by Jan Röhrmann. The studies by Rudolf Hopfner, through the micro-CT imaging technique, allow us to analyze the moulds used, the arching, the thicknesses, the internal construction techniques and see in a new perspective the stylistic details, for instance, of the sculpture of the scrolls and the cutting of the F-holes with a resolution in the order of a tenth of a millimeter. The collaboration with the Arvedi Laboratories of non-invasive diagnostics has allowed us to deepen the analyses on the composition of the varnishes and materials used by the greatest masters of the past.

The first Folder of this new series of the "Treasures" is dedicated to one of the most admired instruments by Antonio Stradivari, made in 1715, at the height of his "golden period". After having been the Stradivari preferred by one of the greatest collectors in history, Baron Johann Knoop, this violin today has the same importance for David Fulton, who wrote about its sound: "Perhaps some are as good, perhaps some have remarkable personalities, but none is better" than the Baron Knoop.