Violin
Date1650-1700 ca.
Place MadeFrance, Europe
Place MadeGermany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted on later paper label: Brescia.DescriptionThis decorated violin appears to be of Northern European origin but its school is currently unidentified. The dark red varnish suggests a period of manufacture in the second half of the seventeenth century or later.
Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: wide grain; wood pin through top above bottom block at center join, under inner strip of purfling
Back: one-piece maple cut off-the-quarter: very faint, very narrow curl; knots in upper and lower bouts on bass side; wood pin through back into top block at center, under inner strip of purfling; later ebony cap over back button
Ribs: slab-cut maple: plain
Head: very faint, very narrow curl; pin mark at center of ear
Neck: very narrow curl; grafted; later
Purfling: double
Decoration: purfling geometric knots inlaid at center of back, upper and lower bout of back; geometric knots continue from inner purfling of each side of upper and lower bout on top and back
Varnish: dark red with craquelure; no varnish under fingerboard
Fingerboard: ebony; later
Nut: ebony; later
F-holes: very large eyes; narrow, curved wings; strongly rounded notch corners
Linings: poplar or willow
Corner blocks: spruce
Bassbar: spruce later
DimensionsTop length: 359 mm
Upper bout width: 161 mm
Center bout width: 124 mm
Lower bout width: 199 mm
Upper rib height: 29-31 mm
Center rib height: 29-31 mm
Lower rib height: 29-31 mm
Stop length: 193 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 131 mm
ProvenanceLaurence Witten was given the instrument as a gift by Charles Beare, London, in 1969.
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published ReferencesGreg Dean Petersen, The Location of the Bridge in the Early Baroque Italian Violin: A Visual Study of Selected Instruments and Paintings, MM thesis, Brigham Young
University, 1995.
Greg Dean Petersen, "Bridge location on the early Italian violin," Early Music 35, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 49-64.
John Koster, “Museum Collections as Resources for Musical Instrument Makers,” American Lutherie, #42 (Summer 1995), pp. 26-35.
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03424
On View
Not on view
1740 - 1760 ca.