Mute violin
Alternate name(s)
- Practice violin
Date1920-1930 ca.
Place MadeMirecourt, France, Europe
MarkingsWritten in black ink on brown paper label affixed to inside of lower bass rib, extending slightly over lining: 4G1128DescriptionThis instrument’s former owner was Edith Lavonne Duenk Volterra (1916-2017). She learned how to play the violin as a child using this instrument for soundless practice at home. Edith subsequently became an accomplished violinist and one of the youngest members of the McDowell Club Women’s Symphony Orchestra in Milwaukee. She attended the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, but by the middle of the Great Depression, told her father that she didn’t see a way forward as a musician due to the economy.
Changing career paths, Edith earned a B.S. in Sociology and a Nursing Certificate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1942. Following her honorable discharge as a nurse in the Mariana Islands during WWII, Edith pursued
a degree in law at the University of Michigan. In 1952, she married Enrico Volterra, Ph.D., Professor of Engineering Mechanics, whose own career eventually brought the family to the University of Texas at Austin.
Edith remained there for the rest of her life, pursuing interests that included literature, art, music, history, and travel. This mute violin was gifted by Alexander Agostini and Virginia Luisa Volterra, in loving memory of their grandmother and mother, Edith Duenk Volterra.
Mute violin with full maple top, partial back and ribs, and central reinforcing truss rod.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut maple: medium, horizontal curl
Back: partial, flat back, inside edges scalloped: two pieces of slab-cut, plain maple
Ribs: partial ribs: quarter-cut maple: narrow curl; festooned ends at cutaways
Head and neck: maple: narrow curl; neck stained brown; inside of pegbox stained black
Purfling: none on back
Varnish: medium brown; back side and interior varnished
Fingerboard: ebony
Nut: ebony
Tailpiece: black-stained ebony; saddle does not extend fully to edges
Tailgut: red gut
Pegs: four varnished ebony
Saddle: ebony, finished with same varnish as body
Endpin: ebony
F-holes: inside edges stained black
Linings: spruce; toothed plane marks on surface; varnished
Top block: spruce; varnished
Bottom block: spruce; varnished
Corner blocks: none; ribs do not extend to corners
Maple plate extending between inside of top to reinforcing truss rod at bridge position.
Circular saw marks on underside of top at edges
DimensionsTotal mute violin length: 596 mm
Top length: 360 mm
Upper bout width: 166 mm
Center bout width: 113 mm
Lower bout width: 208 mm
Upper rib height: 31-32 mm
Lower rib height: 31-32 mm
Stop length: 202 mm
Vibrating string length: 338 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 134 mm
ProvenanceGift of Alexander Agostini and Virginia Luisa Volterra, in memory of their grandmother and mother, Edith Duenk Volterra (Austin, Texas), Rome, Italy, 2020.
Published ReferencesBanks, Margaret Downie.."Rare child's practice violin acquired." _National Music Museum Newsletter_ 45, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 9.
Credit LineGift of Alexander Agostini and Virginia Luisa Volterra, in memory of their grandmother and mother, Edith Duenk Volterra, 2020
Object number15561
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