Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Craft: Viola maker

  • Becker, Carl

    A Chicago maker whose family became one of the most significant in American violin making. He appears 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.

    Father and son are not separated below. Which of the two a given source refers to is not established.

    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
    — reported1
    Models and patterns
    Copyist of Stradivari and Guarneri “in all respects but varnish.” reported read from the page image
    Market history
    — reported1
    What is not known
    Carl Becker Sr. and Carl Becker Jr. are not yet distinguished here. 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

    1. 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.

  • Wilkanowski, William

    A prolific Brooklyn maker whose auction record is one of the few American benchmarks with enough sales to be statistically meaningful. Little else is recorded: the entry carries what the sources establish and nothing else.

    Places and dates of work
    — reported1
    Output (claimed and documented)
    — reported1
    Market history
    — reported1
    What is not known
    Birth and death dates, training, and place of origin are not yet established from any source read. disputed [no source recorded]

    How the pages were read

    3 of the 3 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

    1. 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.