Violin marked "Špidlen, Moscov"

Body length 365 mm

Body width at narrowest base 110 mm

Finger height 30 mm

Total length of instrument 590 mm

Checked by Mr. Vávra from Prague a few years ago

+ included strings, tailpiece, bridge from Vávra and case

Founder of the best violin-making family in Bohemia. He worked his way up to the best violin maker of the end of Tsarist Russia. He then went back to Prague. According to the book The Art of Violin Makers by František Šrámek and Vladimír Pilař, the violins from his Russian career are his golden period, and no labels have survived on violins from this period. He worked mainly with Stradivari and Guarneri models. Fine materials and richly colored varnish.
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Biography of František Špidlen acc. to his grandson:

He was born in 1867 in Sklenařice, a small village in the Giant Mountains. His father was a farmer. He learned the violin making trade in the workshop of his brother-in-law František Víťák and later with Josef Čermák in Český Šumburk. In 1886, at the invitation of his compatriot Jindřich Jindřišek, he went to Kiev to head the musical instrument department in his department store. In 1889, he had to return to Bohemia for military service; he was stationed in Terezín and became involved in the military music scene. Then, in 1892, he returned to Kiev to work for Jindřišek. In 1895, he was already working independently and also married a Czech girl, Anna, née Lorencová. They had four children: Otakar (*1896), Maria (*1898), Václav (*1900) and Josef (*1902).

Over time, he gained a reputation as a leading violin maker in Russia, as evidenced by the insistence of Czech professors Ševčík and Hřimalský and the Czech Quartet that he apply for the position of violin maker at the Imperial Academy in Moscow, which he won. He moved with his family to Moscow, where he spent the best and most productive years of his life.

Like many people from the Krkonoše Mountains, František Špidlen suffered from bronchitis. The Moscow climate was not good for his health, so he returned to Bohemia on the advice of a number of doctors. He left his workshop to Jindřich Vítček, the son of František Vítček, whom he had previously invited from Sklenařice to Russia to work for him. He bought a house in Pokratice near Litoměřice and his health improved. At that time, the violin maker K. B. Dvořák was working in Prague, because of which Špidlen, as an unknown violin maker, could not establish his craft. However, Dvořák died in 1909 and František decided to open a shop in Prague on Křižovnická Street near the Academy. Here too he soon gained general respect.

After Anna's death in 1913, he married a native of Sklenařice, Marie, née Slavíková, and had another son, František. František Špidlen Sr., however, died a year later, on February 16, 1916.