Violin
Maker
Halvor Lee
Date1932
Place MadeSpirit Lake, Iowa, United States, North America
SignedHandwritten in black ink on light brown paper label with torn left and right edges, the last digit of year scraped off and re-written in a different shade of black ink: Made by / HALVOR LEE / Spirit Lake Iowa / 1932MarkingsWritten in black ink on small paper label with cut corners, affixed to lower ribs above endpin: 21Pencil line on inside of back along center joint
Penciled circle at soundpost position
Written in pencil on brown cardboard tag originally attached to scroll, now stored in instrument file: # 2 1 / 1932 / Spruce Top / $150. / [opposite side] NellieDescriptionHalvor Lee (August 13, 1863 - August 17, 1946) was born in Norway and immigrated to the United States as a child in 1869. In 1900 he was working as a mustard grinder in Minneapolis, but by 1910 he was working as a hardware merchant in Center Grove township, Dickinson, Iowa, where the town of Spirit Lake is located. By 1930, he was retired and apparently took up the hobby of violin making.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: wide grain narrowing toward the flanks
Back: two-piece, quarter-cut maple: irregular blister figure; large notches at back button
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: prominent medium curl, angled to left on bass side and lower treble rib, angled to right on upper and center treble ribs; lower rib divided by purfling strip
Head and neck: maple: narrow curl
Edging: edges slightly scooped; corners worn before application of varnish
Purfling: wide center strip; abrupt corners; close to edges
Varnish: medium orange-brown
Fingerboard: ebony; thin
Nut: dark-brown-stained hardwood
Tailpiece: ebony
Tailgut: magenta gut
Pegs: four ebony
Saddle: ebony; set into top; wide; finished with same varnish as body
Endpin: varnished ebony
F-holes: narrow upper wings; pointed lower wings; undercut
Linings: spruce; continue over corner blocks; small strips of lining at joint between top and bottom blocks and back, not extending to edges of block
Corner blocks: spruceDimensionsTotal violin length: 589 mm
Back length: 362 mm
Upper bout width: 168 mm
Center bout width: 110 mm
Lower bout width: 208 mm
Upper rib height: 30-31 mm
Center rib height: 31 mm
Lower rib height: 31-32 mm
Stop length: 195 mm
Vibrating string length: 332 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 137 mmProvenanceFrom the collection of Halvor Lee, grandfather of the donor.
Credit LineGift of Mary L. Fawkes, 1998
Object number06127
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