George Gemunder's Progress in Violin Making, with Interesting Facts Concerning the Art and Its Critics in General [Signed]

Floridly INSCRIBED in belletristic script by the author in black ink on first blank page following ffep: "With compliments of the author", with paraph below. RARE SIGNED FIRST EDITION, with 1881 to both title page & copyright page & no later printing details. Illustrated with engraved frontispiece portrait with author's facsimile signature below. Contains biography of George Gemunder, appendix to biography, plus preface. Full details of sections as follows: Progress of the Structure of Violins - Their Critics; A Treatise Upon the Manner in Which Master-Violins are Ruined; Of the Causes Why the Judging of Violins and the Repairing of Them is Less Understood Than Other Art Productions; On the Preservation of Violins; To Illustrate How Violins of My Construction May be Compared With the Old Italian Master-Violins; Art Exhibitions - How Violins are Examined and Judged; Note About Dilettanti Violin Makers; Good Luck and Art, and Remarks About Violins; Of the Manner of Playing - Treatment of Bridges etc.; Circular Which Accompanied my "Emperor Violin" in the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 - An Interesting Explanation About Violins and of the Science of Tone; A Reply to Mr. E. Schelle's Critique Concerning the Violins in the Exhibition of Vienna in the Leipsig "Neue Zeitschrift fur Musick, No. 52, 1873". Includes erratum slip tipped in at rear. "George Gemünder (1816-1899) was a German-born violin maker who worked in the United States. Gemünder was born at Ingelfingen, in the kingdom of Wurtemburg. With his brother August & others, he pioneered the construction of quality violins in the United States. He was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in Paris, & moved to the United States in 1847, establishing himself in Boston. In 1851 his violins won a medal at the World's Fair in London. In 1852 he moved to Astoria, now part of New York City. Vuillaume, & other European makers violin makers often applied chemicals to their instruments to produce a pseudo-antique look & some believed a desirable tone quality. However, Gemünder felt that wood so treated would soon lose its resonance & render treated instruments worthless. Gemünder succeeded in making excellent violins without chemical treatments. His violins are highly regarded for their volume, power, balance, & overall tone, & have been favorable compared to the work of the best old masters. He was unusually successful in the model & finish of his instruments, & especially the varnish. He so faithfully reproduced the distinctive characteristics of old Italian violins that those made by him are not infrequently mistaken for genuine Cremonas. One called the 'Kaiser', finished in 1873 & sent to the Vienna exhibition, was pronounced an Italian violin of the classic period by judges who thought it impossible to produce so fine a tone from a new instrument. Gemünder also received medals from exhibitions held in Paris (1867), New York (1870), Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876 'hors concours'), Amsterdam (1883), Nice (1883-1884), London (1884), New Orleans (1884-1885 'hors concours'), & London (1885). He wrote a book called George Gemünder's Progress in Violin Making (Astoria, New York, 1881), to which he prefixed an autobiographical sketch." Bound in publisher's original dark green pebbled cloth with bright gilt lettering to front board & spine, blind-ruled borders & blind-stamped floral design to both boards, pale green endpapers. Boards lightly soiled, faint lower margin staining, two former owners contemporary ink names (one to upper edge of title page & one to outer margin of first text page), bookseller's small ink stamp to front pastedown, mild foxing to endpapers, faint mustiness, small splash stains to top edge of book block, otherwise overall a GOOD to VERY GOOD nice clean tight solid hardcover copy. Collated & complete. 108pp. Scarce signed copy of the first edition. EXTREMELY RARE.…