Georg (George) Gemünder (13 April 1816

Ingelfingen Ingelfingen is a town in the Hohenlohe (district), Hohenlohe district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Kocher, 4 km northwest of Künzelsau, and 36 km northeast of Heilbronn. History Numerous archeologica ...

- 15 January 1899) was a German-born American violin maker who worked in

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, and later, Astoria, New York. With his brother

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and others, he pioneered the construction of quality violins in the United States.

Biography

He was a pupil of

Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (; 7 October 1798 – 19 March 1875) was a French luthier, businessman, inventor and winner of many awards. He was one of the finest French luthiers of the 19th century and a key figure in the world of violin making. ...

in Paris, and moved to the United States in 1847, establishing himself in

. In 1851, one of 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, and other European makers violin makers often applied chemicals to their instruments to produce a pseudo-antique look and—some believed—a desirable tone quality. Gemünder, however, felt that wood so treated would soon lose its resonance and render treated instruments worthless. Gemünder succeeded in making excellent violins without chemical treatments. His violins are highly regarded for their volume, power, balance, and overall tone, and have been favorable compared to the work of the best old masters. He was unusually successful in the model and finish of his instruments, and 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. At the Vienna exhibition of 1873, Gemünder's violin the "Kaiser" fooled the judges, who assumed it was an Italian violin from the classical period, and therefore ineligible for prizes.Baumert, Thomas
"George Gemünder."
In ''Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present'', vol. 2, edited by William J. Hausman. German Historical Institute. Last modified September 05, 2013. 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”), and London (1885). He wrote a book called ''Georg Gemünder's Progress in Violin-making'' (

Astoria, New York Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to four other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Queens, Long Island C ...

, 1881), to which he prefixed an autobiographical sketch.

Notes

References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gemunder, Georg 1816 births 1899 deaths American luthiers German expatriates in France German emigrants to the United States People from Ingelfingen