Sandler Violin (1/4 size): Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This small violin was made in 1875 by Friedrich Sander for his three-year-old nephew, Henry Charles Sander Jr. Henry's father was a violinist with the Newark Symphony Orchestra, and he began instructing the young Henry on this instrument. Henry eventually gave the violin to his five-year-old daughter, Lorentine, and she bequeathed it to her daughter Lorae, the donor of the violin to the Smithsonian

Very cleanly made, the violin bears nicely finished edge work throughout and carefully inlaid purfling of maple. The neck and top block are in one piece. Spruce linings are fitted into the instrument's corners without corner blocks. The violin is made of a table of two-piece spruce, two-piece back of maple with even, medium-fine descending figure, ribs of similar maple, an original neck, pegbox and scroll, and a stained black beech wood fingerboard.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1875
• maker: Sander, Friedrich
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: spruce (table material)
• Physical Description: maple (back material)
• Measurements: overall: 19 in x 6 1/8 in x 3 3/16 in; 48.26 cm x 15.5575 cm x 8.09625 cm
• Place Made: Germany: Rhineland Palatinate, Kaiserslautern
• ID Number: 1990.0156.01
• accession number: 1990.0156
• catalog number: 1990.0156.01
• Credit Line: Gift of Lorae P. Aumack
• 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.