Miniature violin
Maker
Hans Nebel
Date1947-1948 ca.
Place MadeMittenwald, Bavaria, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedBranded on back below button, over varnish, each word a separate die: HANS NEBEL / MITTENWALDSmall printed paper label affixed to outside of lower treble rib: Germany
Markingsnone
DescriptionAccording to Hans Nebel (b. 1939), son of Hans Nebel of Mittenwald, this instrument was most likely made as a cheap souvenir for the Musikmesse Mittenwald, which was held in the summers of 1947 and 1948. After 1948, the trade fair was held in Frankfurt. Nebel’s home and workshop was opposite an large, vacant school in which the Musikmesse was held, and he opened a temporary museum of his antique musical instruments just for the Musikmesse. His son believes the miniature violins were given away or sold very cheaply in connection with the fair. He remembers them as a boy, and recalled that the tops and backs were pressed into an arched shape, and that the violins came with black cardboard cases, as with NMM 5061. Nebel (the son) thinks that the miniatures might have been made in his father’s workshop, which was one of the largest in Mittenwald at the time. The Nebel shop employed 42 workers, many of whom were Saxon refugees from the Russian-controlled East. (Mittenwald was in the American-controlled sector.) Nebel said that his father’s workshop also made Zithers at about the same time that were played using sheet music set under the strings. The strings were stopped using a glass tube, in imitation of a Hawaiian guitar. Hans Nebel’s workshop was at Dammkarstrasse 5, Mittenwald, Oberbayern, and his son grew up there.
Top: one-piece spruce cut off-the-quarter: medium grain, narrowing toward the flanks
Back: one-piece, semi-slab-cut maple: narrow, horizontal curl
Ribs: slab-cut maple: plain; one-piece lower rib
Head and neck: maple: plain
Arching: pressed into back
Edging: not scooped
Purfling: single black-painted line
Varnish: light orange
Fingerboard: ebony; slightly tapered; sides varnished
Nut: varnished rosewood
Tailpiece: black plastic; round string holes; extension at lower end rests on top, eliminating need for saddle
Tailgut: white nylon monofilament
Pegs: four black plastic
Saddle: none
Endpin: black-varnished maple
Bridge: white plastic; heart cutout; simplified kidneys
Other: interior not visible
DimensionsTotal violin length: 191 mm
Back length: 114 mm
Upper bout width: 52 mm
Center bout width: 34 mm
Lower bout width: 66 mm
Upper rib height: 10-11 mm
Center rib height: 10-11 mm
Lower rib height: 10-11 mm
Stop length: 61 mm
Vibrating string length: 105 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 44 mm
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.
Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979
Object number05061
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