Object Details
- Description
This violin shoulder rest was made by an undetermined maker in West Germany, undetermined date, and sold by the C. Meisel Music Co. Inc. in Union, New Jersey. It is a clip-on style made of metal with a u-shaped end and a metal bar with two rubber feet on the other. The rest is covered in corduroy fabric. There is a printed label in the underside of the rest:
EST. 1878
C.Meisel
THE HOUSE OF QUALITY
UNION, N.J.This item was sold by Albert Moglie (b. December 16, 1890, Rome; d. June 9, 1988, Washington DC), instrument maker and restorer, and proprietor of a violin shop in Washington DC for 65 years from 1922 until 1987. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to Antonio Sgarbi and subsequently worked under Luigi Enbergher, Giuseppe Rossi and Rodolfo Fredi, all of Rome. Following these apprenticeships, Moglie was a student of Hippolyte Sylvestre in Paris and Leandro Bisiach in Milan.
Albert Moglie came to America at the age of 24 to work for the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, first in Cincinnati and then New York City in 1916. By 1917 he had established his own shop in New York at 1431 Broadway. He moved to Washington DC in 1922.
Moglie enjoyed a fine reputation in Washington as a violin restorer, and is especially remembered as the caretaker of the Gertrude Clark Whittall Stradivari quartet of instruments at the Library of Congress, an association that began in the 1930s and lasted more than 50 years.
The Smithsonian, National Museum of American History, Archives Center houses additional information on the life and career of Albert F. Moglie:
https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0283
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- Credit Line
- Gift of Albert F. Moglie and Lorette M. Moglie
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- fabric (overall material)
- rubber (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 2 1/4 in x 8 1/4 in x 4 in; 5.715 cm x 20.955 cm x 10.16 cm
- Object Name
- shoulder rest
