Violin
Date1780-1845 ca.
Place MadeMarkneukirchen, Saxony, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignednoneMarkingsnone
DescriptionConstruction features such as painted purfling, beech neck, integral neck and top block, lack of corner blocks, bassbar carved from the top, and painted, wedge-shaped fingerboard, as well as relatively crude workmanship, are characteristic of inexpensive commercial violins from the Vogtland of the 18th to 19th centuries. This violin is an example of the types of commercial violins available in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. The bow and case with the instrument date from the mid-to-late 19th century.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: wide grain broadening to very wide at the edges; top not notched at neck position
Back: semi-slab-cut maple: irregular medium curl; notch on inside lower edge at center point
Ribs: semi-slab-cut maple: plain; rib corners chamfered
Head and neck: beech
Purfling: double black-painted lines; does not extend under fingerboard
Varnish: medium orange-brown; shaded; later over-varnish
Fingerboard: black-painted maple; wedge-shaped
Nut: ash; later
Tailpiece: ebony; two notches for upper and lower pairs of strings; ridge along upper edge functions as saddle; later
Tailgut: red gut
Pegs: two black-stained maple; one later whittled ash
Saddle: black-stained maple; low height; set into top
Endpin: carved maple
F-holes: steeply undercut; large notches
Linings: spruce
Corner blocks: none
Top block: integral with neck; wider at joint with top
Bottom block: spruce; beveled corners; grain runs parallel to plane of top and back
Bassbar: carved from top; low height
Other: gouge marks on inside of top
Violin bow, Vogtland, ca. 1850-1900: varnished Pernambuco with ebony frog, abalone dots and slide, nickel-silver ferrule and tip plate, and no heel plate; adjuster missing, probably originally bone. Thin, hand-carved soundpost with white string tied around it
DimensionsBack length: 357 mm
Upper bout width: 160 mm
Center bout width: 113 mm
Lower bout width: 202 mm
Upper rib height: 31-32 mm
Center rib height: 30-31 mm
Lower rib height: 31-32 mm
Total violin length: 580 mm
Stop length: 193 mm
Vibrating string length: 326 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 131 mm
ProvenanceThis violin was owned and played by Mason Whiting, the donor's great grandfather. Whiting was born in Massachusetts in 1822 and moved to Wisconsin with his wife, Almira Rice, in 1847, after their marriage in 1842, around the time the family believes he acquired the violin. He enlisted in the Army in 1863, and was entrusted with protecting communications lines a railroads, as well as moving supplies to troops during the Civil War. He was discharged a year later after severe food poisoning, which impaired his vision. Some years later, in the 1880s, he left St. Marie, Wisconsin to settle in the Dakota Territory with other Wisconsin families. Whiting played violin for barn dances in Milbank, South Dakota, where they homesteaded. He also taught his ninth child, Orlean Whiting, to play and eventually gave his violin to the young man. Orlean returned to Wisconsin after his father died in 1899. The family returned to Milbank in 1909, and the violin was once again used for barn dances in the area. Orlean Whiting was the last family member to use the violin, which retains strings and general condition dating to the early 20th century.
Gift of Arvin Ketcham, Parker, South Dakota, 2013.
Credit LineGift of Arvin Ketcham, 2013
Object number14789
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