Violin, experimental model
Maker
Johann Georg Stauffer
Date1826/12
Place MadeVienna, Austria, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedWritten in black ink on paper label: Ad Normam inviationis Antonii. / Pagatella, Ioannes Georg: Staůffer / fecit. Wiennae Mense Decemb i826.MarkingsScratched on tailpiece: K W
Stamped on bridge: NEUBAUER WIEN
DescriptionSimilar experimental-model, violin family instruments by Stauffer in the Musikinstrumenten Museum, Leipzig (violin, 1828), and the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments (violoncello, 1828).
The design for this experimental model was published in the Allgemeine musicalische Zeitung in 1808, signed "P." for Pagatella, or Antonio Bagatella, a Paduan luthier who published his Memoir, or Rules for the Construction of Violins - Violas - Violoncellos - Double Basses in 1782.
Stauffer invented the arpeggione in 1833.
Body symmetrical on both axes, with viol-shaped corners and without overhanging top and bottom edges
Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain
Back: one-piece maple cut off-the-quarter: narrow, horizontal curl; knots and irregular figure in lower bout; five bird's-eyes in upper bout
Ribs: maple cut off-the-quarter: narrow curl; one-piece lower rib
Head and neck: maple: narrow, prominent curl
Edging: slightly scooped; edges capped with stained fruitwood, continuing around body outline over back button
Varnish: golden
Fingerboard: black-stained spruce veneered with ebony; slightly wedge-shaped; minimal curvature; no channel over neck position
Nut: ebony
Tailpiece: pearwood veneered with ebony; tailgut passes through two holes drilled in face; no saddle; keyhole-shaped string holes; minimal curvature
Tailgut: brass tailgut soldered to a small, rectangular brass plate, engraved with a starburst in a rectangle, that fits over a portion of lower face of tailpiece
Pegs: two black-stained boxwood with mother-of-pearl eyes, the heads with a round-oval shape, the edges not rounded off; two ebony pegs with mother-of-pearl eyes, the heads with rounded edges
Saddle: ebony; lower, rounded edge extends into top portion of rib
Endpin: stained pearwood inlaid with mother-of-pearl circle; flat end with slightly rounded edges
Bridge: Stradivari model by Neubauer, Vienna
F-holes: crescent-shaped; small notches; undercut
Linings: spruce
Corner blocks: spruce
Other: original, narrow bassbar; chin wear to varnish on bass side of tailpiece
DimensionsTotal violin length: 605 mm
Back length: 375 mm
Upper bout width: 189 mm
Center bout width: 110 mm
Lower bout width: 189 mm
Upper rib height: 31-32 mm
Center rib height: 31-32 mm
ower rib height: 31-32 mm
Stop length: 188 mm
Vibrating string length: 323 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 132 mm
Published ReferencesJohn Koster, "Inventive Violin Making . . . Important Acquisitions Enrich Museum's Holdings [François Chanot quartet and Johann Georg Stauffer violin]," America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 28, No. 3 (August 2001), pp. 1-3.
André P. Larson. Beethoven & Berlioz, Paris & Vienna: Musical Treasures from the Age of Revolution & Romance 1789-1848. With essay by John Koster. Exhibition catalog, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, September 12-November 2, 2003. Vermillion: National Music Museum 2003. Pages 19, 38.
John Koster, "What the H'kel! A Rare Early Physharmonika Enriches NMM's Reed-Organ Holdings," National Music Museum Newsletter 33, No. 4 (November 2006), pp. 4-5.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 2001
Object number10028
On View
Not on view
