Follwing services are offered: Dendrochronological investigations (age determination) on bellies of - stringed instruments - plucked instruments on resonance boards of - keyboard instruments on furniture/antiquities made of spruce or fir Procedure of dendrochronolocical investigations After making an appointment the object you want to be dated will be measured on site. The measurements will be done using either a magnifying glass or a transportable microscope. Alternatively you can visit the beautiful city of Hamburg and bring your instrument for the examination. A measurement (e.g.: violin) takes depending on appearence and workmanship (varnish, repairs, cracks...) of the belly from 30 minutes up to two hours. Additionally a data sheet containing the measures, the label and special features of the object is created. A photographic documentation also is included. The interpretation of the measurement, i.e. the comparison with the reference chronologies and the data of other instruments stored in the database will subsequently be done in the laboratory. You will then receive a written report with the examination's results. Every object is registered in a database including the pictures, the report and a file card. The dendrochronological data of the examinations (measurements, sequences) are not shown in the exper's reports, but are stored in the laboratory in order to make the investigation reproducable and traceable. These data could be reviewed on enquiry. If there is any matching instrument in the database or will be found in the future, I will try to arrange a personal contact between the owners if wanted. Microscopical wood anatomical identification Wood has got a complex structure which is composed of several elements with different functions. In softwoods you can find for example earlywood tracheids for water conduit, latewood tracheids for strengthening and raycells which have a storage function. Depending on the wood species these elements are drawn-out in different wages. By microscopical examination of these criteria the wood can be classified. For examination I ideally use the semicuts of the wood's three main directions. Procedure of a wood identification The wood anatomical identification can be made if you send a wood sample (the bigger the better) labelled with the important information. This information should contain the sample's origin, the object's name and your complete address. After identification you will receive a written report. The identification is solely related to the examined sample.