Other
Royal Manchester College Of Music (RMCM)
1898

This embellished violin is a Hardanger fiddle, a folk violin from Western Norway, made by H.T. Kyalik in 1898. It is extremely pretty and beautifully embellished: the back is painted red, decorated with black ink in a chequered design, then a row of lozenges, then something that could be strawberries and leaves, and at the sides there is a flower in the middle, and a flower and foliage at each end. The belly of the instrument has rhomboid pieces of pearl around the edge, decorated like the back in black ink; the f-holes are lined with gold paint and 4 pieces of pearl along the inner edge of each. The tailpiece is made of reindeer horn veneer with white bone ends and bits of pearl along each side, a Maltese cross inlaid, and a flower of bone. The pegbox at the top of the instrument has been gouged out in gilded chevrons, which form the mane of the carved lion's head with a long nose and many teeth, surmounted with a tall flat topped lobed crown. He is a very handsome chap.
It was donated to the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1907 by Harold Lee, of Manchester.