Violin

This folk-instrument was found near the Shaker community of New Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The unusual outline has a very broad and boxy upper and lower bouts. Made at the end of the nineteenth century, it is possible that the instrument was used by Shakers, who only allowed musical instruments into their sect after 1870.

Technical description: Folk fiddle (a) of boxy shape, scribed line imitates purfling, pegbox cracked and repaired with new sides, black-stained fingerboard, tailpiece with fine tuner, squared tailpin, commercial pegs, two-piece top with wings on upper and lower bouts, two-piece back with two nails through button and heel of neck, furnished with new Aubert bridge placed on original marks well below notches in F holes, opaque orange-brown varnish showing brush marks and clamp marks at corners. Oblong commercial case with rounded ends. Case (b).