Monday August 23rd, 2010
Violin Restoration: From Broke to Baroque
Some months ago I came across a very old broken fiddle that I was told would be cost prohibitive to repair and was not playable. In fact, I was told if it had any value at all, it was as wall art. The wood was very old and attractive as was the original carving of the top and bottom plates which when originally created were probably done by a luthier of some skill. The instrument had a label that identified it as having been made by an Italian maker from Verona. The maker, Giacomo Zanoli, was not in Verona until after 1740. However, the label itself was nothing like labels of that maker and was probably a fake given that the date was too early for Verona and the spelling of the maker's name was usually Zanioli on original labels. The instrument itself I was told, did not have characteristics of construction or appearance of the Italian school but rather more likely Mittenwald, Germany as witnessed by the lack of mitering at the C-bout corners and shape, chamfering and position of the F holes as well as the position of the mensur marks.
The top bass side rib was a replacement not even constructed of maple nor properly bent to match the curve of the top plate. The top plate was one piece construction with a number of previously repaired and unrepaired cracks that would have to be repaired or re-repaired to make the instrument playable.
The bottom plate was from a single piece of maple with quite lovely flaming and unique in appearance. However, someone had at one time attempted to clean the instrument and had literally scraped away most of the original varnish leaving dark streaks as are visible in the photo below.
The maple ribs which were probably originally carved from similar or the same maple as the back were attractive but had become warped and did not all flow with the curves of the two plates bouts. The lower rib bouts were constructed from a single piece if maple.
The neck, fingerboard and scroll appeared to be replacements constructed by a country fiddle maker. The scroll photo below shows the fairly crude carving consistent with American folk fiddle construction.
After leaving the fiddle in my closet for a few months I spoke to Ben Parrott one morning and he asked about the fiddle. In spite of great expense that would be entailed in doing a restoration it seemed a shame to just hang it on the wall and let even more structural damage occur to it over the years. Ben suggested that if I was willing to invest the funds he would be willing to remove the top plate to better assess what if any parts of the violin might be salvaged. Given that Ben believed the age of the top and bottom plates to be 200 years old or more, it had occurred to us that the two plates might be used in construction of a violin setup as they were in the Baroque period. I thought it would be great fun to play my favorite music and composers on an instrument that could produce the sound as it was when the music was first composed and performed.
To do the assessment Ben first removed the chin rest and pried/popped off the fingerboard from the neck. The glue was very dry and brittle so it came off very easily.
Ben found an opening between th etop plate and ribs and inserted a dull blade to begin wedging the plate apart moving carefully around the entire body.
At points where the glue appeared to be resistent or carpenter's glue had been used he applied a few drops of alcohol which when dry cool the glue and make it more brittle and easily broken.
Eventually he worked he way around the fiddle and lifted the plate starting at the bottom by the end button.
Below is the violin with top plate removed side-by-side with the inside of the back exposed.
I asked Ben to take some measurements of the plates for future reference.
The back plate:
length - 350.5 mm
lower bout width - 200 mm
upper bout width - 159.5 mm
width between C-bouts - 112 mm
maximum thickness center - 5.2 mm
minimum thickness upper corners - 2.5 mm
The top plate:
maximum thickness center between upper eyes of the F-holes - 5.1 mm
minimum thickness at the upper corners - 2.7 mm
Below repairs to the top plate are evident and may have been done by a skilled luthier who penciled in on the top, Repaired 1929 By Joseph Benjamin of Brigsdale, Ohio ( a suburb of Columbus).
Below Ben is splitting the corner blocks as he intends to eventually remove the ribs from the back plate completely.
Below Ben is soaking the label and the neck joint with water to soften and remove them.
Above and below Ben is splitting the neck joint to remove the neck easily.
The remaining part of the joint will be easier to remove later.
The Assessment Verdict.
Ben believes the the two plates and all but the replacement rib can be restored and used as the basis for a Baroque violin. A new neck with scroll, baroque finger board, replacement upper bass rib and new bass bar will need to be carved by Ben. The maple ribs will need to be re-bent to better match the curve of the top and bottom plates. Cracks will have to be repaired or re-repaired. In order to improve the sound Ben proposes to re-graduate the the two plates. Measurement of the plate thickness verified that the plates were nearly twice as thick as those of the great Stradivari and Guarnari instruments of the same period. He will reduce the thickness of the plates consistent with the Italian masters. Finally, the instruments will require cleaning and application of replacement varnish to repair damage from the scraping done previously. A Baroque bridge, new sound post, baroque style pegs and gut strings will complete the restoration. Ben estimates the time involved will be approximately 60% of that required to build a new Baroque violin.
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