Marcus STAINER

Brother and pupil of Jacob Stainer; he worked in Laufen, Austria. He was a maker of moderate ability, who, after his brother's death, made poor imitations of his work, with labels carefully copied from those of Jacob, thus giving rise to the impression that Jacob was sometimes very careless in his work. The famous Florentine violin player, Veracini, had two violins that he much valued, they were christened " St. Peter'' and " St. Paul'', unluckily Veracini was shipwrecked sailing from London to Leghorn in 1746, and both the violins were lost. His instruments are rarely met with ; they are made of fine wood, the pattern of large size, with dark varnish, the tone sweet but not powerful; a violin is known dated 1683, and a viola, which is said to have a beautiful tone, has the written label : " Marcus Stainer, Burger und Geigenmacher in Küfstein, anno 1659."