Two in One, One in Two

 

The violin is a difficult instrument,
so it is best to start lessons at an early age.

Though the instrument is not complicated,
just a bow and a box with four strings,
it still requires nimble fingers
and agile coordination.

Yet to play a violin well
the most important aptitude
for a child to have
is a good ear.

Though some children may have a natural gift for music,
most just need patience and discipline
to build their musical skills
and attain proficiency
on their instrument.

Today I present a collection
of portraits of young violinists.
All whose names are unknown
but who undoubtedly
had very proud parents.

My first violinist is a boy seated with his violin in the studio of D. Mendelsohn of Berlin, Germany. He is dressed in a fine three-piece suit with short trousers and looks about age 10-12. Across his vest is a watch chain and fob which is an unusual accessory to see on such a small boy. A sign perhaps that he comes from a well-to-do family. But it is his calm direct gaze into the camera lens that really caught my attention. 

In this second carte de visite photo the boy is standing in front of a painted garden scene at the same studio of the photographer, D. Mendelsohn. The address on the photographer's backstamp is 119 Brunnen Str. in Berlin. I've been unable to find much information on this studio but I did find one example of Mendelsohn's work dated 1897 but at 155 Brunnen Straße, and another where the number 119 was crossed out and replaced with 155. So it seems fair to say this boy's photo was taken at least some time before 1897.

* * *

My second young violinist is a girl from Wales. In this carte de visite she is seated in the studio of E. Lott of Nolton Studio, Bridgend which is a town in Wales about 20 miles west of Cardiff and 20 miles east of Swansea. Its name is derived from a medieval bridge over the River Ogmore. 

The photographer's full name is Edwin Lott and he worked in Bridgend from 1875 to 1920. The style of this cdv is probably from the 1890s. At the same sitting the photographer made a second larger print for a cabinet card mount. The girl's layered frock and long stockings suggest her age is 12-14 years old. The circular thing in her hair is not a blemish but a small brooch of tiny clear gems set around a dark colored stone. 

* * *

My third and fourth violinists are two boys who chose have their photo taken at the same place, perhaps as school pictures. Both are dressed in identical suits with short pants, and are of a similar age, perhaps 11-12, though they are too dissimilar, I think, to be brothers. The first boy has a doltish expression of a child out of phase with the world. In contrast, the second boy has a much brighter face full of self-awareness and maturity. I wonder who was the better musician.

The photographer for the two cabinet card photos was Walter E. Chickering of Boston, Massachusetts at 627 Washington St. In my recent story, Even More Fashionable Lady Cornetists, I featured a photo of a beautiful cornet player that was taken by his brother, Elmer Chickering (1857–1915). The brothers may or may not have collaborated in business but evidently Walter considered himself the "ORIGINAL" photographer of that name, as noted in the backstamp printed on these photos. 

Walter E. Chickering died in November 1905 at the Boston Insane Hospital at age 50. According to a brief entry on Find-a-Grave.com the cause of death was "Exhaustion in Terminal Dementia". The entry also reports that in 1892 he tried to evade creditors by moving to Canada and was accused of swindling people in Concord, New Hampshire of $1,000 taking advance payments for photographs he failed to deliver. The Boston city directory listed Walter Chickering under Photographers beginning in the 1883 directory. Elmer joined the list in 1886 and the brothers continued to have their separate businesses listed until the 1890 directory, but Walter disappears from the 1892 edition. That means these two young violinists' photos were probably produced in  the late 1880s but no later than 1890.

This backstamp is from the second boy's photo and it has his name, Ernest, written twice at the bottom. 

* * *

In about the same decade, two boys in Germany also posed with their violins. Each stands in the same exact spot next to a cloth covered table in the studio of Atlier  Emil Schröter of Breite-Str. 32 in Spandau, a western suburb of Berlin. 

Like the Boston boys, these young fellows look to be about 12-14 years old. They are not brothers, I think, as one boy wears a different houndstooth suit with long trousers. My hunch is that both were members of a school orchestra that arranged to have individual portraits made.

 

These small carte de visite photos have beautiful clarity, which is not surprising considering Germany was the center for camera technology in the 19th century. This kind of quality is typical of the late 1890s. In looking up the photographer Emil Schröter I found a similar example of his work dated 1901 from a second studio in Potsdam.  The printed backstamp of these photos has another name, C. Bläsing, which may be Schröter's associate in Spandau. The design is more modern than the other photos I've featured which suggests it dates to the 1900s. 

CODA

As I was preparing this story yesterday and doing my usual due diligence research I discovered another photograph from D. Mendelsohn of a family group of father, mother, and two sons. The youngest boy is my violinist! This photo was taken perhaps a couple of years before the boy's portraits were made. I have now purchased this photo and though I do not know his name I can at least reunite him with his loving parents and brother. (The image is the dealer's scan and I will replace it once I receive the original photo.) By strange coincidence both of his pictures with a violin came from two other different dealers. That's spooky. 

To finish this post with some music here is a short British Pathé newsreel film from 1948 of Australian radio commentator Dick Fair speaking with Ian McDonough, an 8-year-old musical prodigy from Victoria who played the violin, piano, clarinet, organ and tin whistle. I suspect this talented boy is the same person as an Australian violinist with the same name who played with the London Symphony Orchestra for many years.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where sometime a good photo doesn't need a story
to catch your attention.