Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas Erickson
Were these all carved individually, or on some machine for the most part? Are they all identical?
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I wasn't there so I don't know for sure. What it looks like to me is some kind of carving machine roughing them out and various workers, possibly cottage industry with people working at home cleaning up the machine marks and individualizing them by natural inaccurate hand work.
That is my take on them. From the Violin heads to the bass heads they all look like they are based on the same pattern but not made accurate enough to be consistent from head to head.
I have seen some extremely beautiful Lion head basses and owned two of them myself. I remember playing Richard Davis's bass one night before he packed it up at the Vanguard and the Lion on that bass was alive. Another bass is Hal Robinson's bass with what is called a Gargoyle carved head. Outstanding details. Then many years ago I worked with an elder gentleman in a small Orchestra by the name of Irv Manning. An English import living in NYC. He had a bass with a beautifully carved woman's head. He called that bass 'The Lady'. Jeff Bollbach made a beautiful detailed Lion as well a few years ago. That bass will be a classic one day. The details in the hair and eyes are beyond words.
So, when I see these German factory heads I don't get all that excited. Also, the Bass this one is on is from a different maker, different period and different part of the country. Like putting a Ford emblem on a Chevy. It just doesn't fit.
The bass above is a round backed, violin cornered bass. This is not something you usually see from the Mittenwald area. That is mainly flat-back Gamba country for basses, some with lower rounded corners (aka Busetto).
Also, the town of Mittenwald is/was home to 100s of violin/wood workers and wood carvers. Some of the heads could have been made by hand but again, I wasn't there. It's all just a guess.