Vega Violin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This violin was made by the Vega Company in Boston, Massachusetts in 1924. The Vega Company was established in Boston in 1899. It is commonly known as an important manufacturer of banjos, but separate departments of the firm also marketed bowed-string and band instruments. The Vega Company was sold to the C. F. Martin guitar company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1970. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce, two-piece back of quarter cut maple with medium, irregular, descending figure, ribs of similar maple, bird’s-eye maple neck, pegbox and scroll, and reddish-orange varnish.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1924
• maker: Vega Co.
• Object Name: violin
• Physical Description: spruce (table material)
• Physical Description: maple (back material)
• Measurements: overall: 23 7/8 in x 8 1/8 in x 3 1/2 in; 60.6425 cm x 20.6375 cm x 8.89 cm
• place made: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
• ID Number: 1984.0185.01
• catalog number: 1984.0185.01
• accession number: 1984.0185
• 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.