We offer this two-hundred-year-old violin attributed to Lorenzo Ventapane of Naples, Italy c. 1830. The instrument bears his label and the features prominent in violin construction of the locale and time period.
Lorenzo Ventapane is generally considered to be one of the most important of the Neopolitan makers outside the Gaglinao family. He is believed to have trained with one of the Gaglianos, perhaps Giavanni or his son Niocola II and Ventapane instruments bear a strong resemblance in construction and varnish to those of the Gaglianos. Specific Ventapane features include upright f-holes and a slightly oversized eye at the scroll and often a reddish-brown hue to the mineral grind below the varnish. The interior construction including the mortice of the linings into the Blocks at the corners all speak to the genuine Neopolitan construction and Ventapane attribution.
The instrument presents with a warm, full tone with a pleasing resonance in all registers. It supplies plenty of volume and creates carrying tones suitable for a concert soloist or the experienced student ready to take on their lifetime instrument. The warmth allows for seamless blending with other instruments, so this violin would also work well in a quartet, or ensemble. It's tone is pleasing both at the back row and under the ear.
The instrument has now been lovingly restored to modern paying specifications by the renowned violin maker and restorer R. J. Storm. Mr. Storm has been working with violins for over three decades after having apprenticed with Carlos Arcieri, of New York City whose reputation in the field made him the go-to violin restorer for the New York Philharmonic's masterpiece instruments. Mr. Storm's hands have graced some of the world's finest violins such as genuine Stradevari, Guarneri and Amati. Mr. Storm's columns about construction and restoration have often appeared the international publication Fiddler Magazine. R. J.'s restoration to the Ventapane was multifaceted and included repairs to the top, ribs and edges, installation of a bass bar suitable for the pressure of modern strings, a neck set and various cosmetic work. As might be expected, the instrument has also had a neck graft at some point in its lifetime. It is now in very good playing condition and is fully restored following the aesthetics of its original Gagliano school maker and preserving Ventapane's original reddish mineral grind with new varnish overlaid.
Backstory: This violin has had a very interesting past. It came to us from the Trautman family who were the children and grandchildren of Eva Trautman, a professional musician who played events such as weddings and bar-mitzvah up and down the United States east coast for several decades. According to family Eva was a gifted child prodigy in Budapest Hungary in the 1930s and received the violin as a gift from her teacher. Unfortunately, because of her Jewish heritage, Eva had to flee Hungary during the Nazi occupation. She was smuggled out along with the violin under bodies in a funeral wagon and made her way to France where she she was mistaken for a prostitute and almost deported. According to family lore, Eva took out her instrument and began to play whereupon the magistrates realized her talent and found her a place to stay for the duration of the war. After WWII, Eva emigrated to the United States, but having lost her entire family, she did not have the resources to complete conservatory and so made a career playing at parties and events, even appearing once at the White House in the 1970s. When Eva was quite old, the violin fell into significant disrepair and was inherited by the family in that condition until it reached the talented and thoughtful hands of R. J. Storm.