This instrument was found in 2022 at a flea market in Angered, Gothenburg. The violin has the signature Johann Georg Mohte Engelholm 1748 and was almost intact but in bad condition. The intarsia along the edges is similar to several other instruments by Mohte and the pattern on the fingerboard is almost identical to Mohte 2. Part of the ribs near the tailpiece are changed so it is not possible to determine if the sympathetic strings was attached there or in the fingerboard, the former is more likely since that is the case for other Mohte-instruments. The fingerboard might have been removable but is glued now. The shape of the sides of the channel under the fingerboard has to be examined more to be able to determine that. The back of the pegbox has a nice pattern never seen before but the other known double-deckers that are known and not missing have had their necks changed to new one with a scroll so possibly they have had the same pattern originally. The pattern might be similar to the one on Edvin Karlssons fiddle but it is hard to tell due to bad quality of the scanned photos of Edvin Karlsson.
Johan Georg Mohte, 1690/1695-1765, was the first in a family of luthiers in Ängelholm, Skåne. He was born in Dresden in Saxony in 1690 and probably joined the Swedish army while Karl XII was stationed there after the treaty of Altranstädt in 1706. In 1707 the army marched out from Saxony to start Karl XII:s Russian campaign which ended with the defeat in Poltava 1709 after which the king fled to the Ottoman Empire (Moldova) and the rest of the army surrendered in Perevolotjna and all the soldiers ended up in imprisonment in Siberia. Mothe and other prisoners were released after the treaty of Nystad in 1721 and Mothe joined Arwit Rönnegren and a few other soldiers (Johan Engelberg and Johan Kringelberg) to Scania in May 1722. Mothe applied for citizenship and claimed he had learned to be a luthier during the years in Siberia and asked to be able to establish a workshop in Ängelholm. It is not known who taught violin making to Mothe but it has been assumed it is someone connected to Joachim Tielke in Hamburg due to the similarities in style.
Johan Georgs son Johan Jörgen was granted priviledges for luthier work in 1748 and he had a son called Önnert who practised violin building in the 19th century. Johan Georgs son in law, Jacob Hellman was also a luthier in Ängelholm and Carl Johan Broberg (Gothenburg) and Hans Severin Nyborg (Örkelljunga) were also apprentices at Mothes workshop. Two gambas, a violin from 1745 and at least two but probably four Double-deckers made by Johan Georg Mohte have been preserved but there are no known instruments by his son or grandson.
Name | Angeredsfiolen |
Type | Double-decker |
Luthier | Johan Georg Mothe |
Year | 1748 |
Origin | Ängelholm, Skåne |
Found in | Angered, Västergötland |
Playing strings | 4 |
Sympathetic strings | 8 |
Total length | 606 mm |
Scale length | 293 mm |
Length of corpus | 353 mm |
Height | |
Rib height | |
Other instruments built by Johan Georg Mothe | MohteEdvinMohte 2KulturencellonKulturengamban |
Other instruments with the same number of sympathetic strings | TuppenMunkenHjelmenKarlhamnsfiolenElvisBulanMohteGöteborgsfiolenEdvinSödlingNorbergsfiolenHammerMohte 2JamtlifiolenAntikrundanfiolen |
Other instrument with rose painting | TuppenMohteGöteborgsfiolenEdvin |
Other instruments with edge intarsia | MohteEdvinMohte 2Arwitgamban M285MeyergambanKulturencellonKulturengamban |
Other instruments with a lion head | TuppenKarlhamnsfiolenElvisBulanGöteborgsfiolenEdvinSödlingTielkegamban M2475JamtlifiolenBostongambanKulturenfiolenArwitgamban M285DubbeltulpanenTrippeltulpanenKulturencellonKulturengambanAntikrundanfiolen |