Posted on June 1, 2020May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Antonius Stradivarius in South Dakota Antonius Stradivarius in South Dakota by Joseph R. Johnson Originally published in American Lutherie #12, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2000 When the name Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) is mentioned, images of fine quality violins, master craftsmanship, and exorbitantly large price tags come to mind. Stradivari is known to the world primarily as an excellent violin maker. However, the members of the violin family were not the only stringed instruments that he made. Stradivari’s output also included a harp, three known guitars, and patterns for lutes, mandolins, mandolas, and violas da gamba. The Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, is home to the “Rawlins,” one of three extant guitars made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy, between 1680 and 1700. The second is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University in England. The third, much altered and in need of restoration, is privately owned in Italy. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Geometry, Proportion, and the Art of Lutherie by Kevin Coates Review: Geometry, Proportion, and the Art of Lutherie by Kevin Coates Reviewed by R.E. Bruné Originally published in American Lutherie #4, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Geometry, Proportion, and the Art of Lutherie Kevin Coates Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1985 Out of print (1999) I have avoided reviewing books on the subject of lutherie in the past since most of them didn’t really merit reviewing. Books of the how-to type on the subject seem to find their market in spite of poor writing and illustration, lack of scholarship, and/or incompetence on the part of their authors. This book by Kevin Coates deserves mention for its total lack of any of the above shortcomings and really sits in a class by itself in terms of scholarship in lutherie in the English language. The book is a study of the application of geometry and proportion as understood by the makers of the Renaissance and Baroque Eras to their instruments. While this seems at face value to be a rather elementary endeavor, in fact it requires more than a superficial understanding of the principles of Euclidian geometry and the historical background of their application in the West, especially as they relate to lutherie. Consequently, one is very hard pressed to encounter ideas and writing on the subject in English from other sources, aside from a few articles on lutes and related instruments in the Galpin Society Journal by Friedman Hellwig and perhaps a handful of others. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
