John C. Topham

A recent report by Mondino and Avalle (2009) was widely distributed that demonstrated a re-dating of the famous “Messiah” violin, a violin attributed to Antonio Stradivari with a label date of 1716. An outermost ring date of 1844 is instead suggested rather than dates in the 1680s reported in previous studies. Mondino and Avalle suggest that this o...

Esper, J. 2005 (November): Spatial reconstruction of summer temperatures in Central Europe for the last 500 years using annually resolved proxy records: problems and opportunities. Boreas, Vol. 34, pp. 490–497. Oslo. ISSN 0300-9483. Most palaeoclimate studies in Central Europe, utilizing annually resolved proxies such as tree-ring and doc-umentary...

This paper explores the possibility of using ring-width measurements derived from string instruments as a potential source of palaeoclimate information. From a data-base of 1800 measured series, we have identified two sub-sets that compare well with living high elevation spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) chronologies from the Bavarian Forest and Aust...

A dendrochronological investigation of 33 violins made in Cremona during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, including 20 violins by Antonio Stradivari was carried out. After cross-matching data from these instruments an Italian Instrument Master Chronology (IIMC21) was constructed that allowed the authors to date the spruce fronts of 21 of the...

Dendrochronological analysis has been undertaken on 47 stringed instruments of the violin family. The majority of these are attributed to British makers of the 17th to 19th centuries, whilst a small number from modern makers were included for comparative purposes. Tree-ring dates have been produced for 38% of the measured sequences by comparison wi...