String Display Unit

Object Details

Description

This string display stand is made of wood, with a painted rectangular sign attached to a metal stick in the center of the stand, and plastic and glass tubes to hold viollin and viola strings. There are 12 holes in the stand to accommodate glass and plastic tubes. The display unit was originally intended to feature Pirastro Wondertone, Roth, and Tricolore brand strings. The top sign is painted:

PIRASTRO
WONDERTONE
Roth
STRINGS
Tricolore
STRINGS

Albert Moglie (b. December 16, 1890, Rome; d. June 9, 1988, Washington DC), was an 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 materials on the life and career of Albert F. Moglie:

https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0283

Location

Currently not on view

Currently not on view (base; sign)

Currently not on view (string; string tube)

Data Source

National Museum of American History

date made

1930s-1940s

Credit Line

Gift of Albert F. and Lorette M. Moglie

Physical Description

wood (overall material)

glass (overall material)

plastic (overall material)

metal (overall material)

Measurements

overall: base: 12 in x 13 1/2 in; 30.48 cm x 34.29 cm

overall: sign: 20 3/8 in x 6 1/2 in x 1 1/8 in; 51.7525 cm x 16.51 cm x 2.8575 cm

overall: string tube: 23 1/4 in x 1 7/16 in; 59.055 cm x 3.65125 cm

Object Name

display unit