Builder: Unknown

Year: 1886

Description: 4 String Violin

Dimensions: 21 by 4.5 inches

Body: Cigar box, 8.5 by 4.5 by 2.5 inches

Scale Length: 14 inches?

Notes:

This is the oldest instrument in the collection. Fully documented with the owner’s bio and a handwritten note of origin… Purchased at an estate auction of 2 elderly twin sisters, this violin has a note indicating that this instrument was made for their Uncle Albert when he was 8 years old. In a newspaper article about the twin sisters, Albert Leiff was also well known in the area. A hard-working Swedish immigrant, a homesteader who acquired large tracts of farmland and established several businesses. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Leiff bought farms from struggling neighbors, then gave it back to them when the economy recovered, asking only for the taxes owed on the property. Leiff lived to be 99 years old, passing away in 1978, establishing the year that this violin was made.

 Next; AHB's Violin