Messages

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Antique Questions Forum / 100 yr old German Violin

« on: July 31, 2005, 09:33:38 am »

I'm definitely not an expert antique professional, but if the guy at the violin shop let you back out the door after seeing it, I have a feeling it is a "fake" stradivarius. Did he not mention this? The script inside the instrument bears the name of the maker, the town and year it was made. Unfortunately there are many "fake" stradivarius instruments out there. Sometimes they were labeled like this just to let one know it was modeled after a "real" strad, but still not the real thing. Maybe someone else will offer proper advice on the instrument for you. I think you should take it to another violin maker or shop and ask them directly about the name and it's origin - it takes a real professional to positively identify it.

2

Antique Questions Forum / J R Torrey & Co. display case?

« on: July 25, 2005, 08:12:58 pm »

My Mom works once in a while on Saturdays at a small antique shop. There is this box there that has a sign on it that says, "Please help us identify this box". I took some interest in the search for what it is. I am leaving this message for anyone who might offer knowledge on the piece. The back of this wooden box has two hinged doors that close with a metal latch. Opened the reverse side of the doors has the text "J. R. Torrey & Co., Worcester, Mass" and an unidentifiable patent number. The type is gold. There are two colomns of small trays/drawers that slide out from the back. There are 12 rows of drawers in each column. They have a small burgundy cord used for pull handles for each drawer. The drawers are all wooden. The front of the box is a framed piece of glass with wood being it's frame. The front is slanted out towards the bottom of the box. On the front of each drawer there is a small piece of what looks like cardpaper with different numbers handwritten in a stylish script with black ink. After each number is a price written in, none of them exceeding 90 cts. The numbers don't seem to be in any sort of order that I can figure out. The case is obviously some sort of display case for something someone sold from it. I did find out that the J R Torrey & Co. made straight razors. The box, because of the slanted front has drawers at the top that are shallow and short. Towards the bottom the drawers are deeper and longer. This design doesn't make sense for straight razors. The shop where this box is has a price tag with a date of late 1800's. Any ideas? Thanks!