Composite Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made in England by an unknown maker in the late 18th century. It was converted from an English violoncello from around 1680. The violin table is from the upper breast of a cello top, inverting the ornament beneath the fingerboard. A violin outline was cut from the cello top and new edge material was imposed and hidden by traditional purfling. New f-holes and a violin bass bar completed the violin table construction. For the back, the lower center bout from the cello was cut to form a violin outline, and reshaped to approximate the violin arching. New edge overlay and a new button were added, and the back was purfled to match the table.

In its new violin form, the style of this instrument remains strongly English in character, including the late 18th century pegbox and scroll – the single major foreign addition to the violoncello materials. Finally, while there is significant varnishing and retouching to the body edges, much original varnish from the cello remains untouched, of rich semi-transparent reddish orange-brown color.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1700-1799
• date made: ca 1680
• Object Name: violin
• Measurements: overall: 23 3/4 in x 8 in x 3 1/4 in; 60.325 cm x 20.32 cm x 8.255 cm
• place made: United Kingdom: England
• ID Number: 1986.1022.01
• catalog number: 1986.1022.01
• accession number: 1986.1022
• Credit Line: Gift of Joya B. Cox
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.