If you search for 'sycamore' (http://www.cozio.com/search.aspx?sbox=sycamore), you'll find a few instruments with sycamore backs. I couldn't say, though, whether they have 'English sycamore'.

- Phil Margolis
Cozio Publishing

English Sycamore is the same as European Maple.  Maple is the term usually used in the US and Sycamore is a more antiquated term in Europe.  Some Europeans, though, use the term interchangeably.  The Sycamore in the US probably got its name as a misnomer of sorts because the leaves look like the European Sycamore (or European Maple).

Because it is plentiful, Acer pseudoplatanus, is found alot on fiddles and grows over almost all of Europe.  Today, what a maker pays the most for is the quarter sawn mountain grown variety.  Because of this, there generally are three varieties of lumber from suppliers, European Maple, Bosnian Maple and Balkan Maple, but they are all Acer pseudoplatanus.  They simply are this species grown in those respective areas.

If you want to get a good feel for identifying it, violin bridges that have clear flecks visible in the wood are made from quarter sawn Acer pseudoplatanus.  That's almost all of them.  The wood needs to be quarter sawn for the flecks to appear, usually anyway.

The great debate that surfaces from time to time is not the species, as most fiddles use the same species, but the lumber selection and where it originates.

As a rule, uniform straight grain costs more than variant grain.  This is partly for appearance, and partly because the more uniform the grain, the easier it is to produce a good tone in a fiddle.  But it isn't mandatory.  Nor is it a guarantee. 

The big hypothesis in fiddle tone right now is that makers such as Stradivari and Del Gesu had a secret weapon because of the wood they had at their disposal.  The cooler growing climate hypothesis, or the 'tap tone of the tree' hypothesis, et al, have fueled alot of this and make interesting programming on the Discovery Channel.  The problem I have with these hypotheses is that 1) Those who assert these have never made a violin or they would see how offbeat the idea is.  2) Saying that Stradivari was an artist because he selected good wood is the same as saying Michelangelo was a great sculptor because he used great marble.

So what does any of the foregoing have to do with your question?  Plenty.  Your description of Acer pseudoplatanus is pretty much right on.  Simply viewing it will help you pretty much get a feel for it.  Quarter sawn is the easiest to identify as it will also have the flecks similar to those often found on bridges.

Looking at your specimen you have produced I would guess this specimen is from lower altitude growth as there exist some broad grain and the curls are perpendicular, not slanted.  The cut looks like it is rift sawn, or possibly slab-cut.  This would make this board a very common board.  Quarter sawn simply means that one face of the board, at least, lies on the diameter of the tree.  The grain, therefore, runs 90 degrees to the face.  If you examine the end of the board you will see this.  Rift sawn is a little off so the grain when viewed on end is angular.  Slab-cut is parallel to the diameter and loops back and forth when viewed on end.

By modern selection, most makers would reject your specimen.

But take a look at some examples of A. Stradivari on this site alone: #77 Leopold Auer, slab-cut; #1565 Lady Rebecca, slab-cut; #1980 Spencer Dyke, slab-cut (you will NEVER find a more "plain Jane" back than this one!).  

In short, all of those selections, appear to me anyway, to be Acer pseudoplatanus, and yet how different from what we expect a maker to pick today!

Best wishes, I hope this helps even though it is just a little long-winded

Best wishes

The reason I point to the three Strads previously, is that there is much more variety used by the Cremonese makers than makers today often will dare to do.  And sometimes are even aware of. The ancients used slabs, quarter sawn, two piece, flamed, plain and whole mixtures of the two. Ascending curls, descending curls and level. The thing this tells me, is that they did not evidently put much stock in the specific approach to the selection of material as much as to their own ability to accomplish what they wanted from the material they had in front of them.  This is the mark of a real artist.  And then to turn out as much variety as they did and quantity as well.

There are two distinct differences from slow-growth European Maple and normal growth.  Slow growth has narrower grain because the tree does not grow as much each year.  This is known readily.  Another difference, however, is that only slow-growth European Maple has curls at a slant to the grain.  It can also have perpendicular, but normal growth is always only perpendicular.  This is what those who handle it tell me.

Here is an example, the Strad Soil (the 1714 #251, not the 1708 Soil).  This is a beautiful two piece back with slanted ascending curl from center.  (The Mendelssohn Strad #316 is another beauty that slants as well, only in the opposite direction.) If you notice the grain is tight from bout to bout.  The wood is quarter sawn as the tiny flecks are visible in the photo shot on this website.  That wood is clearly slow-growth for it has both characteristics mentioned earlier.

The 1714 Soil is considered by some to be the finest soloist instrument around.  The tone is reported and recorded as superb (Of course it doesn't hurt that Yehudi Menuhin and Itzhak Perlman have been warming it up for 60 years!)  Those who assert the slow-growth theory for tone point to this one and a few others as evidence of their hypothesis.

The problem with this strategy of logic, however, is that neither Stradivari nor any other contemporary could have held to this rigidly or they would have made all their instruments this same way and they did not.  This is even clearer with their selection of the spruce tops.  These vary quite a bit from instrument to instrument in width of grain.

Apparently, alot of their selection was what was on hand and aesthetics more than anything else.  The rest is simply the skill of the maker.  That can only be duplicated by another one with skill, not from just the same type tree.

The back is pretty, Britain. 

The wood appears fairly common, that is, to me.  I am solely judging by comparing it to what I have worked with.  Generally, the wood appears to have variant growth lines, that is, some are broader than others.  It also appears to have been cut from a small tree.  Wood of that nature is easier to find.  This in reality does not mean alot, nor does it reflect on the skill of the maker(s) or quality of the instrument.  It just is my opinion about your question.

As for WHERE the wood came from, I am sure there are experts who could say.  The more important question is, Where is the violin made?  The origin of the wood cannot answer that.

Best wishes