Is it a Stradivarius? Yes! Well, a Stradivarius model. Same diff. These were hardy instruments, capable of putting out a loud strong tone forty years later - and the cases held up, too. I know because I played one.

I got my first and only violin from my Grandfather, who’d played it Jack-Benny style for decades, scratching out simple tunes. We thought it might be worth something, and sent it to an appraiser; he replied with a line I’m sure he used over and over again: this instrument was made by two very famous names. Sears and Roebuck.

It was dinged, knocked around, subjected to extremes of heat and cold, but decades later the pegs still didn’t slip.