Karel van der Meer

Bow maker / Violin maker
(1862 – 1932)

Karel van der Meer (1862–1932) was one of the most influential figures in the revival of Dutch violin making at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Born in The Hague, he initially pursued a career as a violinist and played for several years in the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. His practical experience as a musician would remain important throughout his later career as ...Read More a maker, dealer and workshop director.

Van der Meer took up violin making professionally in the early 1890s. In 1896 he was appointed head of the violin department of the Nieuwe Muziekhandel in Amsterdam, and by 1899 he had established his own business. He later opened a branch in Arnhem and, in partnership with Van Roosmalen, moved his principal Amsterdam workshop to Van Baerlestraat, close to the Concertgebouw. The establishment became one of the most important centres of violin making and restoration in the Netherlands.

Van der Meer's greatest importance was arguably as a workshop director and teacher rather than as a prolific individual maker. He attracted accomplished craftsmen from across Europe and gave them considerable freedom within the workshop. Among those associated with him were Max Möller, Josef Vedral, Johann Stüber, Eugène Eberle and Lorenz Krumholz; Lars Jorgen Rudolf Olsen and Carlo Bisiach also spent periods in his workshop. The French-trained Auguste Toussaint was responsible for many of the firm's finest bows. This diversity of craftsmen explains the considerable variation found among instruments and bows bearing the Van der Meer name.

The instruments produced under his direction are generally of high professional quality and are most frequently based on Guarneri models, although Stradivari and other classical Cremonese patterns were also used. They are typically made from fine materials and finished with carefully applied golden-yellow, orange or red varnish. Van der Meer himself appears to have made relatively few instruments compared with the output of his workshop.

The Amsterdam business closed in 1920, after which Van der Meer moved to Bussum and continued to work privately. He died in 1932. Through the craftsmen he brought to the Netherlands and the high standards established in his workshop, Van der Meer played a central role in creating the modern Dutch school of violin and bow making, and his influence extended well beyond his own relatively limited personal production. Read Less