Viola
Date1562-1609 ca.
Place MadeBrescia, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted on narrow paper label: D.Gaſpar da Salo,in Breſcia.MarkingsWritten in black ink on small paper label visible through treble f-hole: 7529
Branded on bridge toward fingerboard: M.YURKEVITCH
DescriptionThis large, highly arched viola once belnged to Joseph Joachim, the famed 19th century violinist close to Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. Joachim wrote several pieces of solo and chamber music for the viola, perhaps once performed on this very instrument.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain with bear-claw figure; wood pin through top into top block at center joint; wood pin through top into bottom block at center joint
Back: one-piece, slab-cut maple: faint, medium, irregular curl descending from treble to bass; maple and later ebony pin through back into top block; maple and later ebony pin through back into bottom block; later button with ebony crown
Ribs: slab-cut maple: faint bird's-eye and quilted figures; lower rib divided by maple strip surrounded on each side by narrow strips of purfling
Head: plain; inside stained black
Neck: medium curl; grafted; later
Arching: very high and full
Purfling: double
Decoration: abstract decorative floral pattern in upper and lower bouts of back
Varnish: dark orange brown
Fingerboard: ebony; later
Nut: ebony; later
Tailpiece: ebony; small holes; later
Tailgut: plain gut
Pegs: four rosewood with rose-gold-plated brass raised, domed lozenges set into ends of heads; later
Saddle: ebony; tall; later
Endpin: ebony with decoratively turned head and domed ivory inlay
F-holes: very curved, narrow wings; rounded notches; scratched line between inner notches under current finish
Linings: light hardwood; wide; later
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: light hardwood; later
Bottom block: light hardwood; later
Bassbar: spruce; later
DimensionsTotal viola length: 716 mm
Back length: 446 mm (17-5/8")
Upper bout width: 213 mm
Center bout width: 134 mm
Lower bout width: 254 mm
Upper rib height: 28-32 mm
Center rib height: 29-32 mm
Lower rib height: 29-32 mm
Stop length: 230 mm
Vibrating string length: 385 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 150 mm
ProvenanceOwned about 1880 by Joseph Joachim, according to Laurence Witten. Joseph Vieland, New York, New York, violist in the New York Philharmonic, 1930-1960. Witten acquired from Vieland through Jacques Francais, New York, New York, 1960.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published References"N.Y. Times Carries Story . . . Purchase of Witten Collection Attracts Widespread Attention," Shrine to Music Museum, Inc., Newsletter, 11, No. 4 (July 1984), pp. 1-3.
Roger Hargrave, "Preservation Order," The Strad 96, No. 1142 (June 1985), p. 127.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 48.
Maurice W. Riley, The History of The Viola, Vol. II (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Braum-Brumfield, 1991), pp. 18 and 20.
Kurt Kauert, Vogtländisch-westb"hmischer Geigenbau in vier Jahrhunderten (Schneeberg: Sächsische Landesstelle für Volkskultur, 2006), p. 20.
Technical Drawings
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03368
On View
On view
1625-1630 ca.
1890-1930 ca.