Violin without sides

The Bassano family of Venice and London

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Instrument

Renaissance Violin/Violin/Violins/Strings/Musical Instrument ; Violin

Instrument Family

Strings

Maker

The Bassano family of Venice and London

Description

A new neck is grafted almost to the base of the original neck. The current peghead ends in a small scroll of rather crude manufacture which appears to be relatively old and consistent with the aesthetics of the instrument. The fingerboard consists of one piece ebony, and the tailpiece (of recent manufacture) is fastened to an ivory button at the bottom back plate. The top plate consists of two bookmatched pieces of coniferous wood, most likely spruce. On the inside, tool marks are visible and were left unfinished. A small bass bar with annual rings parallel to the soundboard is glued under the top plate. The area around the bass bar is thinner and evenly carved, which shows the bass bar was carefully fitted. Despite the rough appearance of the inner surface, the distribution of the thicknesses seem to be systematic. The top plate’s thicknesses are somewhat consistent with those of a classical violin: slightly thicker in the middle (3.3 mm to 3.9 mm), thinner in the outer areas (2.1 mm to 2.4 mm) and thicker again where it is glued on the back plate. The f-holes have a noticeable undercut. The back consists of two bookmatched pieces of sycamore and present similar tool marks as the top plate on the inner surface. Its thickness is quite uneven, varying between areas as thin as 1mm, to 2.3mm. Like the top plate the thickness increases at the edges. Both top and back plate are framed by a thin purfling shallowly inlaid (only 1-1.5 mm deep in some areas). It is evident that the instrument was opened at least once to perform several repairs. On the top plate the middle joint, one long crack on the treble side and one shorter on the bass side are repaired and supported by wooden reinforcements. On the back, some of the thinner areas resulted in cracks which are also reinforced from the inside. The centre joint is supported by small wooden cleats, and larger wooden patches appear at the bottom and the area next to the upper corner on the bass side where very thin areas are reinforced. Wood worm damage appears mainly in the sycamore parts of the instrument, quite severe in the scroll and the back plate and moderate in the soundboard. Dendrochronology: The growth rings of the soundboard of MIMEd 5851 where measured from CT-scan imaging of the cross sections at their widest points. Unfortunately the small number of rings available did not allowed for reliable dating results. Several specialists were contacted on this regard and the results were altogether non-conclusive with regards to their dating. On MIMEd 5851 we were able to measure only 53 rings on bass, and 58 on treble sides of the soundboard. According to Peter Ratcliff “the correlation between the data from the two sides is extremely low, and may not actually represent a true temporal match.” Varnish analysis: Spectrographic research has been performed on MIMEd 5851 by means of photographic documentation both in the visible range spectra and in the ultraviolet (UV) induced fluorescence, furtherly, spectroscopic and microchemical analyses have been performed in order to characterize the materials in the varnish of both instruments and to compare the results. The UV images show two different treatments of the surfaces. The instrument appears to have an outer layer of a white-yellowish material, maybe residues of a finishing agent or polish applied in previous restorations that covers several areas of the top plates. On MIMEd 5851, a brown-orange varnish is visible and evenly spread across the top plate surface except between the f-holes, where the dark colour of fluorescence highlights the absence of varnish. The differences in the varnishes and superficial treatments show the evidence of substantial wear

Provenance

Purchase, 2008.

Collection

MIMEd

Accession Number

5851

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