Ernst Heinrich Roth

It is through this company that many Roth instruments, bows and other merchandise came onto the North American market, where quite a number of them, from different periods and of very uneven quality, can be found to this day.

In addition to violins, the Roth workshop also manufactured other string instruments (among them, famously, a 1927 double bass owned and played by American jazz bassist Charles Mingus).

From that time onwards, the political climate prohibited the sale of fine instruments to countries unfriendly towards Nazi Germany, and the labour force had to be reduced as a consequence.

In 1945 Albert Roth returned from the war and efforts were made to rekindle the business, but due to restrictions trading out of the Soviet-occupied zone, this proved difficult.

Albert Roth then decided to move to Bubenreuth in the municipality of Erlangen, in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany, and in April 1953 the company started trading again from there.

After Albert's death, his son Ernst Heinrich Roth III, having learned the violin-making trade at the technical college in Bubenreuth from 1953 to 1955 and been awarded the master craftsman's certificate in 1961, was in charge of the management.

Since 1985 Wilhelm Roth, the son of Ernst Heinrich III, has been active in the company, having trained at the renowned violin-making college in Mittenwald.

For this reason, but also due to the size of the workshop's production and the many decades of its operation, the quality of Roth violins varies greatly, ranging from poor to outstanding.

Roth violins were played and praised by distinguished artists of the day such as Eugène Ysaÿe, Henri Marteau and Mischa Mischakoff.

In addition to the label, there is usually an oval-shaped brand stamp inside the instrument reading: Ernst Heinrich Roth / Markneukirchen, followed by a serial number.