Attributed to Amos Gustina (1858 - 1945, Apache)

Fiddle

Date1920-1935

MediumAgave flower stalk, pigments, baling wire, gut strings

DimensionsOverall: 24 × 10 × 7 1/2 × 4 1/2 in. (61 × 25.4 × 19.1 × 11.4 cm)

Object numberT0131

Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw

Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC

Label TextString instruments were extremely rare in Native American cultures, and the Apache version was almost certainly copied from the Spanish or the fiddlers of the American frontier. Apache fiddles were made from a section of the flower stalk of the agave which was split, hollowed, tied together with buckskin or wire and plugged at the ends. Men played them for entertainment and the fiddle held no ceremonial role. (c.f. Ferg 1981, various; Ferg 1987, pl.32) A single tuning peg held one or two horsehairs, and a horsehair bow (not illustrated) was drawn across them. The body of the fiddle was decorated with painted and/or incised designs. This example resembles some in the Arizona State Museum that were made by Amos Gustina, a San Carlos Apache from Bylas, and one collected by Grenville Goodman in 1931. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceMorning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
BibliographyMorning Star Gallery I, 1991, p.38.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.248.

Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 267.

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