Violins of Scandinavian spruces?

[taxelson]

I have asked a question to some people knowing a lot about violins, if there are any violins made of svandinavian spruce-wood. The common (and surely the right) answer is that according to tradition also Swedish instruments are made of central European wood, at least high quality instruments. It would still be interesting to see measurements from instruments used by ordinary people in the countryside. I think they often not had the recourses to bye expensive instruments from abroad or by professional luthiers, but they often were very skilled in ordinary wooden handcraft, and probably able to build their own instruments, although they did not made any masterpieces.

Bertil Israels, dendrochronologist as well, measured the top of two instruments from around Svärdsjö in Dalarna. One of them, an instrument used by a man in the village Marnäs in Enviken (60º50'13"N, 15º39'53"E), dead around 1950, seems to be made of rater local spruce wood after 1924 (Marn01) and the other one of imported (south-german?) wood after 1961 (Eost01). I hope Bertil will write a report and link to it in a reply. Below are correlation values and the mean value series (rwl) so far. Hopefully we may be able to study some more instruments.

Code: Select all

Cybis CDendro, Algorithm: Proportion of last two years growth (2,0,T)
Correlations between available references in PCAB-081221.fil and
Marn01_3.d12 dated to 1924 with corr >= 0,32 and with overlap >= 93
Results sorted according to decreasing correlation coefficient values.
                    T-  Over
           Corr   Test   lap
all...     0,60   7,15    93   based on 5 members
FINL012    0,47   5,14    93    535    1 Kyynärä, Nat.P.Liesjärve WIDTH_RING PCAB -
swed312+   0,47   5,13    93     000    1 Bjorbo (and Grangarde)+Svardsjo, Dalarna            PCAB
swed312    0,47   5,07    93     000    1 Bjorbo (and Grangarde), Dalarna                     PCAB
swed311    0,34   3,47    93     NMG    1 Namdo                                               PCAB
SWED010    0,32   3,24    93     351    1 Nyteboda WID! TH_RING PCAB -


Cybis CDendro, Algorithm: Proportion of last two years growth (2,0,T)
Correlations between available references in PCAB_ABAL_centalEUR-alp_1.fil and
Eost01_2.d12 dated to 1961 with corr >= 0,37 and with overlap >= 83
Results sorted according to decreasing correlation coefficient values.
                    T-  Over
           Corr   Test   lap
all...     0,57   6,51    91   based on 3 members
germ14     0,56   6,02    83     887    1 BAYERISCHER WALD
swit173w   0,40   4,12    91     071    1 Obersaxen, Meierhof, GR WIDTH_RING PCAB -
germ11     0,37   3,75    91     894    1 KREUTH

000    1 Violins in Svärdsjö                                 PCAB
000    2 Sweden                                                    1831 1961
000    3 B. Israels , (T. Axelson)
Eost01  1870   200   180   150   110    96   152   164   197   184   150
Eost01  1880   167   166   141   127   143   150   102   150   156   176
Eost01  1890   161   138   145   127   118   143   148   160   154   112
Eost01  1900   114   116    92   124   140   114    78    90    74    84
Eost01  1910    98   104    96    97    86    86    96    86    78   105
Eost01  1920   117   116   102   112   126   153   130   140   110    68
Eost01  1930    92    84   101    89   128   120    81    94    95    97
Eost01  1940   100    97    74    74    98    86    82   107    73   104
Eost01  1950   121    88    73   102    84   122   131    71   110   117
Eost01  1960   112    96   999
Eost01  #### Eost01 1 Violine by Erik Ostberg                             PCAB
Eost01  #### Eost01 2 Sweden                                                    
Eost01  #### Eost01 3 B Israels
Eost01  #### This violine is one of my own made by Erik Östberg, a friend of me, who died around 1995
Marn01  1831    85    83    91    88   100   101    94    79    97
Marn01  1840   105   109   134   116   129   112   118    73   111   112
Marn01  1850    84   108   125   112    94    76    98   108    80    83
Marn01  1860   103   114   127    97    85    84    78   100    89    66
Marn01  1870   120   108   128   106   104   111    89    94   106    88
Marn01  1880    66    57    82    74   109   106   123    83    98    91
Marn01  1890    96    72    77    75    73    92    96    99    80    88
Marn01  1900   124   110    74   110    84   106   144   151   152   118
Marn01  1910   135   116   105    99   117   118   112   104    93   117
Marn01  1920   102   133   115   109   114   999
Marn01  #### Marn01 1 Violine from  Marnäs, Enviken                       PCAB
Marn01  #### Marn01 2 Sweden                                                
Marn01  #### Marn01 3 B Israels
Marn01  #### A violine of my own, inherited from person who died around 1950. There is no signature and no information about
Marn01  #### the manufacturer. Not a masterpice. Used in traditional folklore.