Violin
Maker
Andrea Amati
Date1574
Place MadeCremona, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedLabel written in red ink on paper with a visibly lined texture. Scored lines marked to lay out the text: [ flower] ANDREA AMADI [paper scrapped to change D to T] IN / CREMONA. M.D.LXXiiij.MarkingsBranded on lower rib, on treble side of end button: 90
Branded on lower rib, on bass side of end button: WC
Branded on bridge toward fingerboard: W.E.HILL & SONS
DescriptionThis small pattern violin was produced near the end of Andrea Amati's life, and likely has a significant amount of his son Antonio's handwork. Compared to earlier Amati instruments, the f-holes are more nuanced. The instrument is one of the best preserved violins of the period, with no evidence of regraduation of the interior. It also has its original neck, reangled at the heel. This instrument was once part of the collection of William Corbett, the composer and violin collector of London, and bears his inventory brand. It passed through the workshop of John Betts in the early nineteenth century and is probably preserved in much the same condition as Betts left it.
Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain at center bouts, narrowing at the sides
Back: two-piece maple cut-of-the-quarter: prominent, medium curl ascending slightly from treble to bass; maple pin through back into top block through center joint; maple pin through back into bottom block on treble side of center joint
Ribs: slab-cut maple: faint, narrow curl; one-piece lower rib; incised mark on lower rib at joint with back marking center position; rib corners chamfered
Head and neck: maple: medium curl; scroll spine does not continue under volute; inside of pegbox stained black; black stains and filled holes from original neck nails visible on heel; original neck reangled at the base and reshaped, probably in the early 19th century
Varnish: golden
Fingerboard: ebony; later
Nut: ebony; later
Tailpiece: boxwood with ebony saddle; bevelled at center position; later
Tailgut: black gut
Pegs: four boxwood with ebony pins and collars; undercut heads; later
Saddle: ebony; extends into lower rib with convex outline; later
Endpin: decoratively turned boxwood with ebony ring and convex eye
F-holes: narrow wings; channeled lower wings and slightly channeled above f-holes; undercut
Linings: poplar or willow
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: light hardwood; later
Bottom block: poplar or willow
Bassbar: spruce; narrow; pointed profile on edge
DimensionsTotal violin length: 567 mm
Back length: 344 mm
Upper bout width: 160 mm
Center bout width: 106 mm
Lower bout width: 197 mm
Upper rib height: 27-28 mm
Center rib height: 28-29 mm
Lower rib height: 28-29 mm
Stop length: 189 mm
Vibrating string length: 320 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 131 mm
ProvenanceWilliam Corbett, London; Harry Wahl, Viborg, Finland; W. E.Hill & Sons, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.
Purchased on behalf of National Music Museum by Daniel Draley, DeWitt, Iowa, at Phillips auction, London, November 21, 1991
Published ReferencesBaron Otto Von Schulmann, "Harry Wahl, Finnish Collector of Violins," Violins and Violinists (July-August 1955), p. 170.
Andrea Mosconi and Laurence C. Witten, Capolavori di Andrea Amati (Cremona: Ente Triennale Internazionale degli Strumenti ad Arco, 1984), pp. 17-22 and 63.
A Genealogy of the Amati Family of Violin Makers 1500-1740, ed. Daniel Draley (1989), illus. 7-10.
Daniel Draley, ed., A Genealogy of the Amati Family of Violin Makers 1500-1740: A Translation of 'La Genealogia degli Amati Liutai' by Carlo Bonetti, published in Cremona in 1938, Gertrud Graubart Champe, translator (DeWitt, Iowa: Daniel Draley, 1989), plates 7-10.
Important Musical Instruments, Phillips London Auction Catalog, November 21, 1991, Lot 180, pp. 68-69.
"1991 Acquisitions Include Rare Andrea Amati Violin," The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 19, No. 2 (January 1992), pp. 1-2.
"1991 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society 21, No. 1 (February 1992), p. 6.
Greg Dean Petersen, "Bridge location on the early Italian violin," Early Music 35, No. 1 (February 2007), pp. 49-64.
---------, Cremona 2007: A Guide to the city of Andrea Amati (London: Newsquest Specialist Media Ltd., June 2007), pp. 1-17.
Dilworth, John. "Andrea Amati, Part 1." Tarisio, 20 Feb. 2019, tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/andrea-amati-part-1/.
Dilworth, John. "Andrea Amati, Part 2." Tarisio, 27 Feb. 2019, tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/andrea-amati-part-2/.
Technical Drawings
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1991
Object number05260
On View
Not on view
