Gragnani Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made by Antonio Gragnani in Livorno (Leghorn), Italy in 1783. Working in Livorno, Antonio Gragnani (1740-1795) was one of the few Italian makers to utilize whalebone purfling. This violin has characteristic elongated Amati modeling, distinctive narrow extended pegbox with “compressed” scroll, and whalebone purfling. It retains the original neck, bass-bar and varnish in an outstanding state of preservation. This violin of a two-piece table of spruce, back of maple in two pieces cut on the quarter with very fine irregular horizontal figure, ribs of even medium-fine figured maple, an original neck, pegbox and scroll of fine figured maple similar to the back, and transparent orange-brown varnish.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1783
• maker: Gragnani, Antonio
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: spruce (table material)
• Physical Description: maple (back material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 3/8 in x 8 1/8 in x 3 3/8 in; 59.3725 cm x 20.6375 cm x 8.5725 cm
• Place Made: Italy: Tuscany, Livorno
• ID Number: 1979.0173.01
• catalog number: 1979.0173.01
• accession number: 1979.0173
• Credit Line: Gift of Cora and Laurence C. Witten II
• 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.