This folk fiddle was made by George Schramm around 1850. A true homemade instrument, it is a “Cigar-Box Violin” of trapezoidal outline with small center bouts and crude f-holes. The table and back are flat and bear pastiche-filled channels in imitation of purfling. The pegbox and closed scroll are similarly fanciful in execution. The instrument is accompanied by a cardboard, paper-lined case. This violin is made of a two-piece table of pine, back of plain American sycamore in one piece, ribs of similar sycamore, plain maple neck, elongated pegbox and compact, deeply cut scroll with one volute, and a thick opaque reddish-brown varnish.
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