Yet another fiddler image - dated 1863

[markj]

Here's yet another nice image, which has a bit more provenance than "the average bear":

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260160525335&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=016

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[Danny]

Re: Yet another fiddler image - dated 1863

Mark -

Am I seeing the heavy string on the bottom? See closer view attached here.

I bring this up because photographers would often have banjo players pose holding the instrument backwards in order to counter the "mirror image" effect (the result of having no negative to flop and print from -- the image burns directly onto the metal). This pose may as well been staged here to get the effect of a right-hand bower with the instrument cradled by the left hand, as in real life.

The tip-off here may be we see the heavy string on the bottom side rather than the top side - not a typical way to string a fiddle. If so, the man wears his ring on his left ring finger. He's not stopping a string, perhaps because that hand is awkward in that role - fiddlers can tell us if his other hand grips the bow properly.

But not to make too much of that. Nice photo.

- Dan Wykes