Violin
Maker
Marco Antonio Cerin
Date1792
Place MadeVenice, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted on paper label, the last digit of year written in black ink: Marcus, Antonius, Cerin, Alumnus / Anſelmii, Beloſii, Fecit Venetiæ An. 1792MarkingsDie-stamped into back of pegbox: 2180
DescriptionThis Cerin violin is an exceptionally well-preserved example of the late classical Venetian school. It bears its original fittings and unmodified varnish. It was still in the possession of its original noble Venetian owners at the time of the Stradivari Bicenntenial in 1937.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain; wood pin through top into top block on treble side of center joint; wood pin through top into bottom block on bass side of center joint; top not notched at neck position
Back: one-piece, quarter-cut maple: faint, narrow horizontal curl; single maple pins through back into top and bottom blocks
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: narrow, irregular curl; one-piece lower rib
Head and neck: maple: faint, narrow curl
Edging: deeply channeled
Purfling: does not continue under fingerboard
Varnish: medium orange brown
Fingerboard: spruce veneered with ebony; wedge-shaped
Nut: ivory
Tailpiece: beech with ebony veneer; rounded lower end
Tailgut: iron wire
Pegs: four boxwood; undercut heads with integral pins on the end; two incised lines on edges of heads
Saddle: ebony; narrow, shallow, low height; triangular potion with concave edges extends into lower rib
Endpin: boxwood; decoratively turned head
Linings: spruce
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: spruce; large iron screw with flat head through block into neck
Bottom block: spruce
Bassbar: low height; replaced in 1937
Technical drawing available for purchase.
DimensionsTotal violin length: 580 mm
Back length: 353 mm
Upper bout width: 164 mm
Center bout width: 110 mm
Lower bout width: 201 mm
Upper rib height: 28- 30 mm
Center rib height: 30-32 mm
Lower rib height: 32-33 mm
Stop length: 195 mm
Vibrating string length: 331 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 136 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Conte Carigiani di Venezia by Simone Fernando Sacconi, New York, New York, at the time of the Stradivari Bicentennial exhibition, Cremona, 1937. Witten acquired from Emil Herrmann, New York, New York, in 1962.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten Family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published References"Witten Collection Acquired," Shrine to Music Museum, Inc., Newsletter 11, No. 3 (April 1984), pp. 1-4.
Roger Hargrave, "Preservation Order," The Strad 96, No. 1142 (June 1985), pp. 127-128.
Margaret Downie Banks, "The Witten-Rawlins Collection & Other Early Italian Stringed Instruments at the Shrine to Music Museum," Journal of the Violin Society of America, Vol. VIII, No. 3, 1987, pp. 41-43 (photos pp. 42-43).
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 17 and inside cover.
Technical Drawings
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03355
On View
Not on view
