H Reuck -Dark Ribless Appalachian Clamshell- Violin Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 1881

Description

Here for your consideration is one:
Museum Quality, Historic, One-of-a-Kind, Post-Civil War, "Rib-less or Clam-shell"
Violin.
Interior, on the bare wood, hand inscribed in ink, are the words:
"H. Rëuck Pittsburgh Pa. 1881"
Here is this violin's story ...
At the age of 13, in 1882, young Mary Reuck traveled over four-thousand miles from
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to
Cologne, Germany to study violin;
Two years of study under professor, Josef Schwartz, at the Cologne Conservatory
and Three years in Berlin, at the Royal Academy of Music.
In 1881, the year before Mary left for Germany, her father, Henry Reuck,
built the wonderful violin listed here.  Considering the time he invested in this,
his work of art, not merely by recreating what was not expected, but creating
what you see here, a one-of a kind “clamshell” ribless violin.
Henry must have loved it! The investment of not only making the violin,
but then, the expense of sending his daughter to Germany
for 5 years of musical training. This violin, no doubt, embodied his dreams.
While at the academy, Mary met her future husband and fellow student, Franz Walczek,
who at the age of fourteen, had won a contest in Graz, Austria with his rendition
of Paganini’s “Witches Dance”, such that the Austrian government paid in full,
for his musical education in Berlin.  As a student of the great violinist, Joseph Joachim,
both he and Mary were considered "Virtuoso" violinist.
Mary Reuck and Franz Wilczek were married in Pittsburgh in October of 1893.
They formed "The Wilczek Concert Company" and performed all over the country,
including with "The Boston Symphony Orchestra", "The New York Orchestra",
"The Theodore Thomas Orchestra", "The White House Musicale of President
and Mrs. McKinley" and "Carnegie Music Hall" in Pittsburgh to name a few.
Mary Reuck Wilczek became Concertmeister of the "Fadettes of Boston",
a 60 piece, all women orchestra.
So here, arguably, is the violin that STARTED IT ALL and
profoundly shaped ALL of their lives;
Henry Rëuck’s 1881 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania handmade,
"Ribless-Clamshell Violin".