The fiddle
Mihajlo Kostin Stevović
Podgora, Crna Gora, 1914
wood, leather
cutting, gouging, carving, tanning
length of the instrument = 63 cm
length of the neck = 38,5 cm
body = 15 x 24 cm
length from the peg to the bottom of the instrument = 50,5 cm
string length = 41,5 cm
Et 7361
The Collection of Musical Instruments
The fiddle is single-stringed, and crafted from one block of wood. There is one peg (“čivija”) on top of the neck, one string is tied to it. The neck is richly ornamented with simple carvings. The body is hollowed out and covered by animal skin. A cross is carved on the bottom of the body.
The fiddle was crafted by Mihajlo Kostin Stevović from Podgora, Montenegro. He donated it to the Museum in 1929, when Božidar Širola was conducting his research in Montenegro. The note on the fiddle says that this is “a children’s fiddle”. Kuhač says that boys were taught from early age how to play the fiddle and were being groomed for becoming fiddlers.
