Native Tree Society BBS

Dendrochronology has found numerous art-historical applications, ranging from panel paintings to antique furniture. It is necessary for the wooden object to contain an adequate number of clearly visible rings, usually no less than sixty, and there must be a master chronology for the particular tree species and geographical area or you might end up… barking up the wrong tree! The application I myself find most intriguing is the dating of stringed instruments of the violin family – violins, violas, cellos and double basses – an application that instrument appraisers, sellers, players, authenticators and purchasers alike are gradually starting to acknowledge.

The back, sides and neck of stringed instruments are typically made of maple or sycamore, which are not suitable for dendrochronological investigation, but the front of the belly is usually made of Norway spruce, which is ideal for the technique. It is a lucky coincidence that wood with optimal acoustic properties, such as spruce of good quality without defects, knots and whatnot, is also dendrochronology-friendly. On the other hand, heavily restored instruments, patches of transplanted or later wood, painted year rings, dents, scratches, varnish that obstructs the wood grain, send dendrochronologists climbing up a tree…!

To obtain the desired symmetry on the front of the instrument, the craftsman starts with a wedge of wood, split from a cylindrical slice of tree trunk and with the oldest growth at the thin end of the wedge. This is split down the middle and the two half-wedges are opened like a butterfly and joined usually along the bark side of the wood. Therefore symmetrical ring patterns should be displayed on the two pieces with the youngest growth rings towards the centre. More than two pieces might be used in larger instruments, such as double basses.