All sean-bishop articles
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FocusIs it a real Stradivarius? How to check the authenticity and value of a violin
A reader has inherited an old Italian violin, in this case a Landolfi. In fact, finding a violin in a grandparent’s attic is some people’s first introduction to the stringed-instrument world. What’s the next step regarding authentication?
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FocusIn focus: violin by Vincenzo Postiglione, 1891
Sean Bishop examines a violin by the most prolific and finest Neapolitan makers of the second half of the 19th century. From the January 2008 issue. Photographs by Richard Valencia [click ‘+’ to zoom]
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FocusDo different rosin brands actually perform differently? We put 7 to the test
The Strad’s editor Charlotte Smith and contributing editor Pauline Harding put seven rosins to the test and discover a world of difference between brand and type
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VideoGreat French violin makers: F.L. Pique & J.B. Vuillaume
Another video from Sean Bishop of Bishop Instruments & Bows in London, here talking about two violins by François Louis Pique and one by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume – the latter, according to Bishop, being the ‘one true genius after Stradivari and Guarneri’.
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VideoNaples violin makers: Della Corte, Postiglione and Pistucci
Sean Bishop of Bishop Instruments & Bows in London talks us through some 19th-century Naples violin makers, some following Gagliano models and other with more individual touches. n.b. the video is flipped horizontally - Sean Bishop assures us his instruments are strung the usual way round
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NewsStradivarius violin tops The Strad’s ‘blind test’ of old and modern instruments
The pre-concert event at London’s Barbican compared six instruments, played by LSO concertmaster Roman Simovic