Viola
Alternate name(s)
- Tenor viola
Maker
Jacob Stainer
Date1650-1665 ca.
Place MadeAbsam, Tyrol, Austria, Europe
SignedFacsimile manuscript label on paper: JacobusStainer in Absam / prope Oenipontumfis·65·MarkingsBranded on Stradivari model bridge, toward fingerboard: Wurlitzer. N.Y
DescriptionThis very large instrument is preserved in its original dimensions, with original neck, inlaid maple fingerboard, and head reattached in the twentieth century. The instrument had been modernized, but the original components preserved, and it was restored by its previous owner Walter Hamma. Dendrochronology was performed on the instrument by Micha Beuting and Peter Klein in conjunction with the Jakob Stainer exhibition at Schloss Ambras, Austria, in 2003. The tree rings visible on the viola are between 1336 and 1625.
Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: fine-to-medium grain
Back: two-piece, quarter-cut maple: narrow curl, ascending asymetrically from the center joint
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: narrow curl
Head and neck: maple: narrow curl; original neck had been removed and reinstalled in twentieth century; pegbox with shoulders
Varnish: light orange-brown
Fingerboard: maple with narrow curl; inlaid with geometric purfling pattern, with purfling along sides; short; tapered; notch at neck heel position
Nut: snakewood; later
Tailpiece: maple with narrow curl; inlaid with geometric purfling pattern, with purfling along sides; maple saddle; key-shaped string holes; tailgut passes through holes drilled in face; later
Tailgut: plain gut
Pegs: four boxwood wtih undercut heads and integral pins; later
Saddle: ebony; later
Endpin: boxwood with large ebony eye; later
F-holes: strongly curved wings
Linings: light hardwood with open pores and visible rays; set into corner blocks in center bout
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: spruce; later
Bottom block: spruce; later
Bassbar: spruce; later
DimensionsTotal viola length: 710 mm
Back length: 466 mm (18-3/8")
Upper bout width: 225 mm
Center bout width: 150 mm
Lower bout width: 272 mm
Upper rib height: 43-44 mm
Center rib height: 44-45 mm
Lower rib height: 43-45 mm
Stop length: 259 mm
Vibrating string length: 396 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 137 mm
ProvenanceFrom the Hammig and Hamma Collections, acquired from the latter through Jacques Français, New York, New York, 1961. Also owned by Hermann Hammig, Berlin, R. von Mendelssohn, Berlin (1923), Hill & Sons until 1897 (Senn / Roy, p. 215) Apparently the viola was in Hamma's hands when the false label was inserted Senn / Roy p. 215 mention certificate from Wurlitzer #C2955 (ca. 1660)
Purchased by the National Music Museum from Laurence Witten family, New Haven, Connecticut, 1984.
Published ReferencesWalter Hamma, Geigenbauer der Deutschen Schule des 17. bis 19. Jahrhunderts, Bands II, pp. 310-311, 324-25 (Tenor-viola 1665).
Walter Senn and Karl Roy, Jakob Stainer, Leben und Werk des Tirolen Meisters 1617-1683, pp. 215-16, 300-02 (Tenor viola, 1665?)
A. Moser, Geschichte des Violinspiels, 1923, p. 44.
MGG Vol. 12 (1955), tafel 63.
Fridolin Hamma, Meister deutscher Geigenbaukunst, Vol. 2 (1961), tafel 65
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 48.
Rudolf Hopfner. Jacob Stainer. (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2003)
André P. Larson, "A Summer in the Alps . . . Two Great Instruments Loaned For Exhibition in Innsbruck," National Music Museum Newsletter 30, No. 2 (May 2003), pp. 1-2
Darren Freeman, "Think Big," The Strad 121, Vol. 1439 (March 2010), pp. cover, 29-34.
Technical Drawings
Credit LineWitten-Rawlins Collection, 1984
Object number03371
On View
Not on view
