Sebastian Klotz (Khloz, Kloz) was born in Mittenwald
on January 18, 1696. He was the second son of Matthias Klotz and his first wife Maria, born Seiz. He died on January 20, 1775.

Training, Family and Self-employment

Sebastian Klotz most likely learned lute and violin making around 1710 from his father. On May 15, 1724 he married Maria Rosina Mayr (c. 1704–June 17,1770) from Rovereto in Mittenwald. This would tend to indicate that Sebastian Klotz had spent some time in Tyrol or Italy before this. The couple lived in half of his parent´s house in the Herrengasse, purchasing it on October 25, 1728. Eleven children were born to them, three of whom went on to become violin makers: Georg II Karl, Aegidius Sebastian and Joseph I Thomas.

Position and Influence

Sebastian Klotz can be considered to have had an exemplary personality and as someone who had an immense influence on the Mittenwald "school". He developed his own model, which can be considered to stylistically lie somewhere between those of Amati and Stainer, with a middle to high arching which first runs down into a broad fluting leading to a shallower fluting before being integrated into the dimensionality of the edge work.
There is a round feeling to the f-holes, which have large circles. The pegboxes are elegant in form, each scroll exhibiting a wide open throat that has been deeply cut up to over the eyes of the scroll, thus giving the whole scroll a generous appearance.
Both the top and bottom ribs are in one piece, have been either marked with a scratch or a chip cut in the middle. They were often cut on the slab.
When one looks at the inside of the instrument, one can see that the spruce corner blocks have been carried quite a way out on the ribs; the spruce liners have been inserted sharply in a pointed fashion.
The lack is characteristically thin and of an intensive brown color.

When one looks at the instruments of Sebastian Klotz, one can recognize the hand of a hard-working, routined craftsman both through the exquisite detail work and the perfection of his design. These instruments had a huge influence on violin making in Mittenwald until the beginning of the 19th century. Even though this was the case, there are very few instruments in existence which bear his label – there are more of these instruments, though, which carry the Mittenwald Stainer or Amati labels.

As of about 1760–1765 one can see the effects of a slow decline entering his work. The instruments of this period can be considered to be workshop instruments which, although they still exhibit a high level of quality, can be seen to have small compromises in detail. Examples of this would be a slightly less elegant form to the edgework, a fluting that lies somewhat too close to the edge, f-holes that are a touch too narrow in the arm, or which possess circles that are just a touch too small, or even simply through the lack of a wooden pin through the back going into the top and bottom block.

There are great variations in the measurements of Sebastian Klotz’s violins: the body length varies between 35.5 cm and 35.9 cm (measured over the arching), the height of the ribs varies between 3.1 cm and 3.2 cm and the body mensur varies between 18.6–19.8 cm. As one could imagine, these variations in measurements were also adopted in Mittenwald violin making as a whole.

Students

Sebastian Klotz trained his own sons and, in addition, most likely trained other Mittenwalders as well as students from other areas. There are only a few whose names are known (in the chronological order of their training):

S.Klotz`s son Georg II Karl Klotz (c. 1723–1797)
Anton Gäßler (apprenticeship c. 1736–1742)
Andreas Gäßler (apprenticeship c. 1736–1742)
Johann Augustin Gäßler (began his apprenticeship in 1736 with S. Klotz´s brother Georg I Klotz; after his death in 1737, Gäßler finished his apprenticeship through 1742 with Sebastian Klotz)
S.Klotz´s son Aegidius Klotz (1733–1805)
S.Klotz´s son Joseph I Thomas Klotz (1743–after 1811)
Johann Georg Psenner (1766–1767 as a journeyman, after his apprenticeship with S.Klotz´s son Georg II Klotz c. 1761–1766)


Instruments

Some instruments are to be found in Hamma (1986) and Lütgendorff/Drescher (1990).

Labels

In addition to printed Mittenwald Amati and Stainer labels, Sebastian Klotz used two printed labels with his own name:

Label 1:

Literature

Baader 2/1936, 143. Beare 1980. Hamma 1986, 451–458. Klinner 1983. Layer 1959. Lütgendorff 6/1922. Lütgendorff/Drescher 1990. Ostler 1994, 124. Senn 1958.

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