Violin case ID required

[Byrdbop]

[Dwight Brown]

I think that kind is called a holster case.  Never fear we actually have experts in historic cases here!

 

DLB

[Violadamore]

3 hours ago, Byrdbop said:

 

1 hour ago, Dwight Brown said:

I think that kind is called a holster case.  Never fear we actually have experts in historic cases here!

 

DLB

Yup, that's what some older threads show as a holster case.  While we're waiting for the case experts, what's the painting, by whom, and where found?

[hendrik]

William Hogarth, The Tête à Tête.

Part of a series called  " Marriage a la Mode"

satirizing arranged marriages for money and status in upper class  British society.

It is in the National Gallery in London.

 

[palousian]

It appear that those dissolute rogues found the Indian hemp.  Ye GODS!

[Violadamore]

48 minutes ago, hendrik said:

William Hogarth, The Tête à Tête.

Part of a series called  " Marriage a la Mode"

satirizing arranged marriages for money and status in upper class  British society.

It is in the National Gallery in London.

 

Thank you.  Hogarth is always a delight, I'm surprised I hadn't stumbled across these before.  Wikipedia has the entire set, with commentaries. 

[Herman West]

next thing the kid is going to swipe al those knicknacks off the mantelpiece.

[Bill Merkel]

5 hours ago, Violadamore said:

Wikipedia has the entire set, with commentaries. 

Does it end with Frenchmen being guillotined?

[rudall]

14 hours ago, Violadamore said:

  Hogarth is always a delight

And had a pet pug dog called Trump!

Andrew

[jacobsaunders]

The Kunsthistorische Museum in the Neue Burg in Vienna has such a case on display. If my memory serves me right, it is displayed with a Leidolff viola, and is advertised as original to the instrument

[Dwight Brown]

I have a feeling this type of case is responsible for the traditional wear pattern we see on old instruments.

 

DLB

[Violadamore]

3 hours ago, Dwight Brown said:

I have a feeling this type of case is responsible for the traditional wear pattern we see on old instruments.

 

DLB

I'm not going rummaging for the topic right now, but yup, we've discussed this before.  IIRC, scroll wear and bridge foot hollows can be due to holster cases, but some similar scroll wear patterns can be caused by resting them against a table.

[Dwight Brown]

I was thinking about some of the wear on the back.

 

DLB

[Herman West]

particularly on the back of the head

[Dimitri Musafia]

It is indeed a holster case, however I've never seen exactly that type of aperture before. If it's English, perhaps that would explain it… :-)  

[puckfandan]

I just had an English fiddle arrive in multiple pieces thanks to it being shipped in a holster case, covered with tape and not even placed in a box....some peoples kids.

[B.Ceruti]

On 5/25/2019 at 6:42 PM, Violadamore said:

I'm not going rummaging for the topic right now, but yup, we've discussed this before.  IIRC, scroll wear and bridge foot hollows can be due to holster cases, but some similar scroll wear patterns can be caused by resting them against a table.

Not to misdirect the thread, but this leads me to wondering, why is it that old violins express these typical wear patterns? 

I have owned and regularly played the same ~100 year old violin for over 15 years now. 15 years represents 15% of its total lifespan, a not-inconsequential span of years. And yet in all the time I have owned it, it has perhaps picked up a nick or two, but nothing approaching the sort of "all the freaking varnish on the back is gone" look that seems to be common on old instruments. So what the heck were our ancestors doing with these violins? Rolling out pie-dough? Applying wall-plaster? Digging graves?  

Put another way, I would expect an old violin to have nicks and small "impact-type" injuries, but the characteristic wear patters are more like "varnish has been removed from damn near everywhere and we are down to the base-coat". Why is that? Is it just because modern cases are comfier than a Cadillac, or is it something else? Something... sinister. 

[Violadamore]

1 hour ago, B.Ceruti said:

Not to misdirect the thread, but this leads me to wondering, why is it that old violins express these typical wear patterns? 

I have owned and regularly played the same ~100 year old violin for over 15 years now. 15 years represents 15% of its total lifespan, a not-inconsequential span of years. And yet in all the time I have owned it, it has perhaps picked up a nick or two, but nothing approaching the sort of "all the freaking varnish on the back is gone" look that seems to be common on old instruments. So what the heck were our ancestors doing with these violins? Rolling out pie-dough? Applying wall-plaster? Digging graves?  

Put another way, I would expect an old violin to have nicks and small "impact-type" injuries, but the characteristic wear patters are more like "varnish has been removed from damn near everywhere and we are down to the base-coat". Why is that? Is it just because modern cases are comfier than a Cadillac, or is it something else? Something... sinister. 

O coddled child of modern times, heir of graded, paved roads, pneumatic tires and sprung suspensions!   Perhaps also a rider of the railroad, or a passenger of the great silver bird!  Haven't spent much time in buggies, wagons, carts, stagecoaches, or on horseback with your baggage hanging off the side, getting jostled on each hoofbeat, have you now?  In the not so long ago days of animal power alone, a holster case would have spent most of the journey rubbing away at the fiddle, clop, clop, clop, clop........   Ahhh, the romance of it all, not to forget the endless piles of manure on the roads. 

Other, probably much less important, causes of changes in wear patterns over time, might have to do with changes in playing style and typical venues since the days of Paganini.  We no longer let the fiddle rest on the left arm, or rest the pegbox against a bar or a table, etc. (though this last can still be seen in some European folk styles).