This sophisticated violin was crafted during Louis Löwenthal's time in Dresden  it is a successful replica of a model by Stradivari The exceptionally successful atelier owner and instrument merchant  Löwenthal is said to have made his first attempts at crafting violins during his boyhood in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad)  his fanciful violin was pieced together out of random bits of wood  strings made of cotton thread and a bow with hair that had just been cut from horses passing by on the street