Subject: Fiddles from the Farmhouse Attic.
From:
Uncle Jaque
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 09:37 AM
Fiddles in the Attic.
Last night I spoke by phone with a Friend who had recently been presented with a couple of old violins from the attic of his Family Farm in South Central Maine. This home has been in the Family for at least a couple of Generations and is currently occupied by his Grandparents. These dusty hierlooms had been tucked away up there for at least 50 years, as far as anyone knows.
I have given a little curiosity over the years as to the distinction between the "Fiddle" and the "Violin", and don't consider myself to be any authority on the subject at all - but what seems to have emerged from the farmhouse attic is one of each. Perhaps one of you Fiddlers out there might illuminate us a bit.
Details are sketchy, but this much was extracted from the "Grandpa"; he remembers being instructed as a child (we're probably talking 1930's, here) under great duress from his Father, to play violin, and remembers playing both instruments. As soon as he escaped from said duress, or upon the Old Man's demise, the instruments went into storage where they have been ever since. Gran'pa never really took to music, much, even though it seemed that his father had much wanted to pass along what seems to have been a long Family tradition.
Great-Grandfather (Granpa's Dad) was apparently the Son or Grandson (we're not sure which yet) of an Irish Immigrant who we figure might have come over sometime during the Irish Potato Famine - 1840's, wasn't it?
He was apparently an accomplished Violinist, and is said to have played in the Providence, RI area both with the "Faye's Theater" (?) and the RI Symphony Orchestra in Providence. My guess would be that this would have been sometime between 1910 and 1940.
One of these instruments seems to have been his; I would venture to call it a "violin" mainly because it has a chin-rest and was used for Classical performance. It is accompanied by 6 bows, all of which I am told are "beautiful" with mother-of-pearl inlay on a rich, dark wood that looks as if it might be mahogany.
I have not seen these instruments yet, and only have a description given over the phone - but perhaps someone in here can shed some light as to their identity and origin. My Friend intends to have them professionally evaluated and restored, as there is some minor splitting and joint separation from long exposure to the temperature and humidity extremes up there in the attic. The finish on them is a little rough, but generally intact.
Although I do some restoration on guitars, I will advise him to farm these out to someone who specializes in violins, as I really don't know that much about them and I suspect that one or both of these may just have some significant antique value.
Inside the body of the first violin is a printed paper label which reads:
"E. A. NOTTAGE, Violin Maker"
"Diploma Awarded for Tone at Rhode Island State Fair; 1897"
"Repairing and Toning a Specialty"
Handwritten on the label is:
"Repaired: 19_?_3."
He thinks that the unreadable digit might be a Zero or a "3".
This violin is encased in what appears to be a regular violin-shaped hard case.
The other instrument is, I think, a "Fiddle". Don't know why, really, other than it has no chin rest. I have seen pictures of old-time Fiddlers playing the instrument over their lap, with the tailpiece resting on the left chest, and the neck pointing away to the front and downwards a little, the bow just passing over the crook of the left elbow. Some of them may have even fretted the strings overhand, like a Mountain Dulcimer rather than coming around from under the neck. I suppose you would not need a chin-rest doing it that way. It looks a lot more comfortable to me, and if I ever take up the fiddle I think that's the way I shall do it.
What really got my attention on this one is the case; a wooden cabinatry "Coffin" with an arched or "mounded" top. To my mind, this indicates a vintage of somewhere between 1830 and the Civil War; am I correct on that? We have been told that the reason that they used to "mound" the tops on instrument cases was so that the fellow loading them into the baggage compartment of a train or wagon - or the hold of a sailing ship - would put them on top of the pile, as the rounded top was not conducive to a stable stack if part of the "foundation" underneath. Thus the valuable instrument avoided being crushed beneath a ton of other people's baggage and cargo.
That makes sense to me!
The Fiddle is made of a beautiful, blonde, tiger-stripe material we are told - probably hard maple. Some of the pegs are missing, and it shows wear from a lot of use. The fingerboard has started to lift off of the neck.
The label inside only reads:
"Copy of Antonio Straduvarius" (I suspect that the misspelling of "Stradivarius" may be intentional, much as the forgeries of the "Derringer" pistols used several creative alternative spellings of the name in order to avoid litigation for plagiarism.)
And: "Made in Germany".
I can't help but wonder; when that Ancestor sailed over from starving Ireland... did he bring his fiddle along with him?
And did he teach his Son to play it?
We'll continue to pick Grandpa's brains for historical & Genealogical details, and I'm anxious to personally examine these relics.
In the meantime, if any Mudcat Fiddle experts out there would care to comment or speculate on what we might have here, we'd appreciate it!
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sj
