Violin

Date1942

Place MadeSpirit Lake, Iowa, United States, North America

SignedWritten in black ink on banner-shaped, light brown paper label with black ink line around edge, the last two digits of year in pencil, visible through treble f-hole: Made By / HALVOR LEE / 1942MarkingsWritten in pencil on brown cardboard tag originally to scroll, now stored in instrument file: # 2 8 / 1942 / Birds eye maple / back - Spruce from / piano $50.DescriptionHalvor Lee (August 13, 1863 - August 17, 1946) was born in Norway and immigrated to the United States as a child in 1869. In 1900 he was working as a mustard grinder in Minneapolis, but by 1910 he was working as a hardware merchant in Center Grove township, Dickinson, Iowa, where the town of Spirit Lake is located. By 1930, he was retired and apparently took up the hobby of violin making.

Top: four-piece spruce: bass sides cut off-the-quarter: medium grain; treble sides quarter-cut: narrow grain; joints at lower treble wing, to treble side of saddle, and through bass f-hole; maple dowel through top into bottom block, to treble side of center line
Back: two-piece, slab-cut maple: prominent bird’s-eye figure and faint, broad curl descending steeply from center joint; very small button; large notches at button
Ribs: slab-cut maple: faint, irregular, narrow curl
Head and neck: maple: very narrow curl descending from bass to treble; flared lower scroll volutes; channel in neck under fingerboard position; holes drilled in underside and back of neck heel
Arching: low height
Edging: not scooped; blunt corners
Purfling: none; incised single line close to edges
Varnish: light golden; black stain applied to back, ribs, neck, and scroll before varnish applied
Fingerboard: ebony
Nut: missing
Tailpiece: ebony; black-stained pearwood saddle does not fully extend to edges; crack in lower end repaired with strip of lead solder around lower end; modified for tailgut to pass through holes drilled in bottom, over face
Tailgut: red gut
Pegs: four black-varnished dark tropical hardwood
Saddle: ebony; narrow; set into top; separate ebony piece extends slightly over upper portion of lower rib
Endpin: ebony with mother-of-pearl eye; closer to back than top
F-holes: upper and lower wings connected to top at points; small notches; slightly undercut
Linings: spruce; extend incompletely over corner blocks, with break at center
Corner blocks: spruce
Bassbar: long; low height
Other: tool marks visible on outside of ribsDimensionsTotal violin length: 585 mm
Back length: 354 mm
Upper bout width: 166 mm
Center bout width: 108 mm
Lower bout width: 206 mm
Upper rib height: 30-32 mm
Center rib height: 30-32 mm
Lower rib height: 31-32 mm
Stop length: 197 mm
Vibrating string length: 330 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 133 mmProvenanceFrom the collection of Halvor Lee, grandfather of the donor.

Credit LineGift of Mary L. Fawkes, 1998

Object number06131

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