Cello makerRepairerViola makerViolin makerChicago, Illinoisborn 1887
As printed
Named by Fairfield (1942) — “Carl Becker, Frank Sindelar, Knute Reindahl, Eugene Knapik and many others” — among makers who “learned the craft under his guidance,” in a passage almost certainly under John Hornsteiner’s entry.
Read in OCR snippets, not from a page image, and Fairfield's own record concedes the passage could not be bridged verbatim to the Hornsteiner heading — the attribution to Hornsteiner's entry is a strong inference, not a confirmed transcription. It is independently supported here only by the shared address at 59 E. Adams St. Verify against a page image before treating it as settled.
Records in the tens of thousands of dollars, reaching six figures — a cello at $108,000 in November 2025.
From a price database rather than the sale record itself. The cited page is the one Tarisio files as Carl Becker Sr. (Maker_ID 49; Maker_ID 50 is the younger), so the database assigns the $108,000 cello to the elder. Note also that no viola record surfaced despite roughly seventeen violas attributed to him, which is a real datum about the American viola market.
This claim names a source that has no page on this site yet, so it cannot be checked. It is shown rather than hidden.This record does not yet distinguish Carl Becker Sr. from Carl Becker Jr.
The 1916 entry is certainly the elder, and the cited price database now resolves its two IDs — 49 the elder, 50 the younger — with the record cello under the elder. Auction records met elsewhere may still belong to either. Separating them fully is the first task on this record and no claim above should be read across the two.
Show all 4 printings
The Violinist's Guide: Written for the Use of the Violin Buying Public (1916)
Born 1887, American.
Self-supplied to the 1916 trade directory and not independently verified here.
59 E. Adams Street, Chicago, in 1916.
The same address houses John Hornsteiner and Frank Sindelair in the same directory — three makers at one premises.
Fifteen years’ experience by 1916, implying a start around 1901.
Self-supplied to the 1916 trade directory: "maker and repairer with fifteen years' experience." The start date is arithmetic from that, not a stated fact.
Copyist of Stradivari and Guarneri “in all respects but varnish.”
His own description.
Named in 3 books printed between 1916 and 1942. Read partly by software from scans, partly from the page images, checked by a person against the page. Entries from 3 books stand under this name, and nobody has judged yet whether they mean the same person.
Details and sources
Record note
A Chicago maker whose family became one of the most significant in American violin making. He appears here at the start of his career, in a 1916 trade directory, at the same address as two other makers — and again a century later at the top of the American auction market.
This record carries an unresolved identity problem, stated openly: it does not yet separate father from son.
What the books say
- Born (date and place)
- Born 1887, American. reported read from the page image
- Places and dates of work
- 59 E. Adams Street, Chicago, in 1916. documented read from the page image
- Training
- Fifteen years’ experience by 1916, implying a start around 1901. reported read from the page image
- Training
- Named by Fairfield (1942) — “Carl Becker, Frank Sindelar, Knute Reindahl, Eugene Knapik and many others” — among makers who “learned the craft under his guidance,” in a passage almost certainly under John Hornsteiner’s entry. reported1
- Models and patterns
- Copyist of Stradivari and Guarneri “in all respects but varnish.” reported read from the page image
- Market history
- Records in the tens of thousands of dollars, reaching six figures — a cello at $108,000 in November 2025. reported1
- What is not known
- This record does not yet distinguish Carl Becker Sr. from Carl Becker Jr. disputed [no source recorded]
How the pages were read
2 of the 6 lines here were read from machine text (software that turns a photo of a page into words), not by a person looking at the page image.
Notes
- Read from machine text (software that turns a photo of a page into words, or a typed transcription), not by a person looking at the page image. ↩
Instruments
No instruments recorded yet for this maker.
The books behind this record
This record draws on 3 sources, 1 read from the page image; 2 known only from search excerpts. The count weighs how well each source was read, not just how many are cited. A stack of half-read sources does not outweigh one page read properly.
- The Violinist’s Guide: Written for the Use of the Violin Buying Public (Chicago: The Violinist Publishing Company, 1916), pp. 19–43. Google Books, zXQHAQAAMAAJ. https://books.google.com/books?id=zXQHAQAAMAAJ.
Self-supplied to the 1916 trade directory and not independently verified here. The same address houses John Hornsteiner and Frank Sindelair in the same directory — three makers at one premises. Self-supplied to the 1916 trade directory: "maker and repairer with fifteen years' experience." The start date is arithmetic from that, not a stated fact. His own description.
- Fairfield, John H., Known Violin Makers (Richmond, Virginia: Virtuoso Publications (this printing 2006; first published 1942), 1942), p. 152. archive.org, knownviolinmaker00fair. https://archive.org/details/knownviolinmaker00fair. [Search excerpt only]
Read in OCR snippets, not from a page image, and Fairfield's own record concedes the passage could not be bridged verbatim to the Hornsteiner heading — the attribution to Hornsteiner's entry is a strong inference, not a confirmed transcription. It is independently supported here only by the shared address at 59 E. Adams St. Verify against a page image before treating it as settled.
- Maker page, Carl Becker Sr.. Tarisio Cozio Archive, Maker_ID=49 (Carl Becker Sr.; Maker_ID=50 is Carl Becker Jr.). https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/browse-the-archive/makers/maker/?Maker_ID=49. [Search excerpt only]
From a price database rather than the sale record itself. The cited page is the one Tarisio files as Carl Becker Sr. (Maker_ID 49; Maker_ID 50 is the younger), so the database assigns the $108,000 cello to the elder. Note also that no viola record surfaced despite roughly seventeen violas attributed to him, which is a real datum about the American viola market.