The New International Encyclopædia/Gemünder, George

GEMÜNDER, George (1816-99). A brother of August Gemünder (q.v.), born at Ingelfingen. He worked at violin-making in Germany and France, followed August to the New World in 1847, and settled in New York in 1852. His instruments took the first prize at the great English Exhibition of 1851. In 1873 his copy of a Guarnerius was pronounced by the jury of awards at the Vienna Exhibition to be a genuine instrument. He claimed as the secret of his success that he did not use chemicals in the preparation of his wood, but instead used it in its natural condition. His instruments were even finer than his brother's, and were beyond question the best violins ever made in the United States. He was the author of a book entitled George Gemünder's Progress in Violin-Making (Astoria, N. Y., 1881). His death occurred in New York.