French Violin
date: label: Date made
content: 1878 - 1882
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This violin was made in Mirecourt, France around 1880 This commercial Mirecourt violin was inspired by J.B. Vuillaume of Paris, who began making ornamental violins with carved male heads after 1829 (see catalog #1992.0388.01). In this example, a plain commercial Mirecourt instrument with the addition of a carved male head is marketed by J. Howard Foote in New York City, where it appears in his 1882 catalog, “Nos. 5943 Copy of Gaspard Duiffo Pruggar, superior quality, carved head and corners, plain ebony trimmings ... $15.00 each.”</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Carved bearded male heads made in Paris and Mirecourt were taken from a famous 1565 engraving of Gaspar Tieffenbrucker, surrounded by a group of bowed and plucked instruments and his tools. He was born in Bavaria in 1514, was trained and Guild-certified as a lute and instrument maker in Füssen, and then immigrated to France, where he established workshops in Lyon in 1533 and became famous for his viols and other bowed and plucked instruments. He continued working in Lyon until his death in 1571, after which his son Gaspar Tieffenbrucker the younger moved to Paris and continued in his father's tradition as an instrument maker. This violin has a reproduction Gaspar da Salo label and is made of a two-piece table of spruce, two-piece back of maple with irregular, medium descending figure, ribs of similar maple, neck of mildly figured maple with pegbox and carved male head, and a yellow-orange varnish.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: France: Grand Est, Mirecourt
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Violins
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of J. Howard Foote
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.055683
label: catalog number
content: 55683
label: accession number
content: 11535
objectType: label: Object Name
content: violin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: spruce (table material)
label: Physical Description
content: ebony (tail piece; finger board; tuning pegs material)
label: Physical Description
content: maple (back material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 36.3 cm x 20.8 cm; 14 5/16 in x 8 3/16 in