1916 Walter I. Robinson Violin
Walter Robinson, Violin Maker
When I was a teen-aged boy, Mr. Walter Robinson would hire me to do yard work such as raking and mowing around his home on the Trumbull Corners road in Upper Jay, NY. He paid me a fair price for a fair day's work and when I had earned enough, he allowed me to purchase the only blonde violin he had made. It was a beautiful violin and I owed him such a debt of gratitude for being so kind to sell it to me for around $200.00 with a coffin-shaped, hand-built case and a violin bow. This was a lot of money in 1962 working for around 35 cents per hour the first summer I worked for him and around 50-60 cents per hour the next summer. But it was a steal for one of his violins.
One of the many stories Mr. Robinson told me was the one where he had been offered a lot of money (from a woman who owned a violin costing her over thirty thousand dollars) for a root-beer colored violin that he had promised a relative who lived in Minnesota. The person who offered him so much money settled for a less expensive violin of Mr. Robinson's and went on to play it in a nationally reknowned orchestra in Boston or Philadelphia if I remember correctly. She loved the tone of the Robinson Violin better than her expensive one and this pleased Walter so much that he often told me this story. Speaking of remembering correctly, as I recollect, Walter told me he had made just 14 violins. Each and every time that I finished my assigned tasks for Mr. Robinson I would politely ask if he would show me his violins. He was always eager to show them to me and to play them. They all sounded so fantastic; so mellow and full. Often times, in anticipation of me completing my work, he would play the violins and I would listen while I worked outside as the melodies would emulate from the open windows of his living room. Walter Robinson performing beautiful violin melodies with his carefully hand-crafted works of art is permanently etched into my memories of those wonderful childhood times. The old Master playing his family of violins for a young and eager listener.
When Walter was a young teenager, he worked on a logging operation on Irish Hill between Keene and his hometown of Upper Jay, NY. It was here that he purchased, from a lumberjack boss, the blocks of maple and spruce that he would later use to make his violins. I can still remember him telling me that he aged the woods for years in the attic of his home until he was finally ready to build the instruments. I also remember seeing pictures he showed me of the sluiceway that carried the logs down the mountain to the East Branch of the AuSable River. It passed over the old road near the same old home where Will Slattery, an attorney, lived when I was a boy.
Walter was on in age when I knew him, probably in his late seventies, or so. He lived to be around 95 having survived his lovely wife who passed away in 1963. As I can recall him relating to me, Walter's father was named William and he ran a wheelwright business in Upper Jay. William may have moved here from St. Paul, Minnesota where his father, Orville Robinson, was a violin maker. I am not entirely sure whether William ever lived in Minnesota, I just can not remember.
Check out this website for a violin made by O.M. Robinson: http://www.fiddlesong.com/pages/instruments_and_bows/violins.htm (scroll about 3/4 of the way towards the bottom of the page and look at # 680).
Here's a paragraph out of an old newspaper from years ago in the Adirondacks written by my friend Dick "Daddy" Richards who passed away a few years back:
“One 1926 old-time fiddlers’ contest at Black Brook, (AuSable Valley) saw area fiddlers Bob Blackbird, Pat Doyle, Ben Wright, Arthur Yelle, Louis Belrose, Joe Carmel and M. Senecal competing for the prize. In that same year, at The Palace in Lake Placid, Upper Jay fiddler Mr. Robinson (perhaps Orville M. Robinson, a nineteenth-century fiddle maker from Upper Jay) took first place, nudging out AuSable Forks’ Senecal, who came in second, and a Mr.Trombley of Peru, who took third. Each of the fiddlers at this contest played to the piano accompaniment of Mrs. Orsia Vassar.” Here's the link: http://www.adirondackmusic.org/pages/71/13/some-background
Orville Robinson had previously lived in the Adirondacks and had designed rifles under the trade name Adirondack Arms Company of Plattsburgh, NY. The Winchester Arms Company bought up at least three patents of O.M. Robinson's rifles from 1864 to 1875.
So, Walter's grandfather was a violin maker. I do not remember Walter saying whether his father, William, built violins. But Walter clearly followed in his grandfather's shoes. Walter's son, Paul Robinson, lived in Upper Jay on route 9N not far from Walter's house. Paul had an appliance store next to his home where he later did gunsmithing and ran a country store and lived to be around ninety years of age. He was a greatly respected man and was very kind to my brother and me as we were growing up. We loved going to his store and visiting with him. A few short years before he passed away he shared how he loved taking piano lessons when he was a young man but had to give them up because of the time involved away from chores since he had to walk from Upper Jay to Wilmington, a distance of over 10 miles round trip, for his lessons. He never resumed taking lessons or playing the piano and related to me that it was something he'd always regretted. I will never forget how kind Paul and Walter were.
Walt's work was meticulous in every detail. Arto Monaco, designer and owner of "The Land of Makebelieve", once a theme park in Upper Jay, once told me that Walter painted automobiles with a brush and no one was able to tell, thinking, rather, that they were spray painted. He was a stickler for detail. I know that when I worked for him doing yard work, he insisted on a job well done.
As the years passed by, I let someone take my blonde-varnished Walter I. Robinson violin and somehow lost track of it. I have absolutely no idea what ever happened to it. At one time I had a huge collection of violins and would buy, swap, trade, sell, & wheel-and-deal and somehow, I lost the violin. I've been heart-sick ever since, having had such a treasure and losing possession of it. Fast forward many, many years.....
This April, 2010, dear and close friends of my girlfriend, Mary Winchell, and fairly recent friends of mine, invited us over to visit and out of the blue, during our fun-filled conversations, gave me a Walter I. Robinson violin. I nearly fell over! What a wonderful gift! It's a root-beer colored violin that Walter made in 1916. I replaced the strings with Dr. Thomastik's and cleaned it up a bit, re-glued the saddle, put a newer tailpiece with string adjusters on (saving the original tailpiece aside) and slowly over a period of several days, brought it up to concert pitch. The sound this violin projects is PHENOMENAL! Words cannot begin to describe the joyful feelings I have to actually have such a wonderful violin made by such a wonderful man in my hands again. Rest assured, I will not lose this one. It has found a loving and caring home. It has renewed my interest in violin playing. To say I'm overwhelmed with joy is an understatement!
Recently, Mary and I went to our friend's home to visit them and to thank them again for such a wonderful act of kindness and I brought the violin and played a reel and a couple of waltzes for them. They enjoyed hearing the violin and kindly "suffered" through my playing which has diminished in ability in the years following heart surgery due to numbness in my ring and pinky fingers in both hands.
Having known the violin maker personally and to have carelessly lost ownership of one of his violins only to obtain a more beautiful violin of his making in the closing chapters of my life speaks volumes to me about divinely mysterious gifts appearing through truly wonderful friends. Mary and I are so blessed in life. Not by monetary riches, but rather by truly wonderful acts of kindness. Bestowing gifts and acts of kindness on others has always given Mary and me warm feelings, and when the direction reverses, similar tears of genuine happiness form.
Orville M. Robinson was born in 1838 in Vermont. He lived in Upper Jay before moving to Penn Yan, NY and then to St. Paul, Minnesota. His son, William, was born in 1859 and lived until 1954. William's son, Walter, was born in 1883 and passed away in 1978. His son, Paul was born in 1904 and lived until passing away in 1995. Walter, his wife Blanche Flagg Robinson, and Paul and his wife Elsie Gordon Robinson, are buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Upper Jay.
Note: Walter I. Robinson violins are valued from $8,800.00 to 31,875.00
One of the many stories Mr. Robinson told me was the one where he had been offered a lot of money (from a woman who owned a violin costing her over thirty thousand dollars) for a root-beer colored violin that he had promised a relative who lived in Minnesota. The person who offered him so much money settled for a less expensive violin of Mr. Robinson's and went on to play it in a nationally reknowned orchestra in Boston or Philadelphia if I remember correctly. She loved the tone of the Robinson Violin better than her expensive one and this pleased Walter so much that he often told me this story. Speaking of remembering correctly, as I recollect, Walter told me he had made just 14 violins. Each and every time that I finished my assigned tasks for Mr. Robinson I would politely ask if he would show me his violins. He was always eager to show them to me and to play them. They all sounded so fantastic; so mellow and full. Often times, in anticipation of me completing my work, he would play the violins and I would listen while I worked outside as the melodies would emulate from the open windows of his living room. Walter Robinson performing beautiful violin melodies with his carefully hand-crafted works of art is permanently etched into my memories of those wonderful childhood times. The old Master playing his family of violins for a young and eager listener.
When Walter was a young teenager, he worked on a logging operation on Irish Hill between Keene and his hometown of Upper Jay, NY. It was here that he purchased, from a lumberjack boss, the blocks of maple and spruce that he would later use to make his violins. I can still remember him telling me that he aged the woods for years in the attic of his home until he was finally ready to build the instruments. I also remember seeing pictures he showed me of the sluiceway that carried the logs down the mountain to the East Branch of the AuSable River. It passed over the old road near the same old home where Will Slattery, an attorney, lived when I was a boy.
Walter was on in age when I knew him, probably in his late seventies, or so. He lived to be around 95 having survived his lovely wife who passed away in 1963. As I can recall him relating to me, Walter's father was named William and he ran a wheelwright business in Upper Jay. William may have moved here from St. Paul, Minnesota where his father, Orville Robinson, was a violin maker. I am not entirely sure whether William ever lived in Minnesota, I just can not remember.
Check out this website for a violin made by O.M. Robinson: http://www.fiddlesong.com/pages/instruments_and_bows/violins.htm (scroll about 3/4 of the way towards the bottom of the page and look at # 680).
Here's a paragraph out of an old newspaper from years ago in the Adirondacks written by my friend Dick "Daddy" Richards who passed away a few years back:
“One 1926 old-time fiddlers’ contest at Black Brook, (AuSable Valley) saw area fiddlers Bob Blackbird, Pat Doyle, Ben Wright, Arthur Yelle, Louis Belrose, Joe Carmel and M. Senecal competing for the prize. In that same year, at The Palace in Lake Placid, Upper Jay fiddler Mr. Robinson (perhaps Orville M. Robinson, a nineteenth-century fiddle maker from Upper Jay) took first place, nudging out AuSable Forks’ Senecal, who came in second, and a Mr.Trombley of Peru, who took third. Each of the fiddlers at this contest played to the piano accompaniment of Mrs. Orsia Vassar.” Here's the link: http://www.adirondackmusic.org/pages/71/13/some-background
Orville Robinson had previously lived in the Adirondacks and had designed rifles under the trade name Adirondack Arms Company of Plattsburgh, NY. The Winchester Arms Company bought up at least three patents of O.M. Robinson's rifles from 1864 to 1875.
So, Walter's grandfather was a violin maker. I do not remember Walter saying whether his father, William, built violins. But Walter clearly followed in his grandfather's shoes. Walter's son, Paul Robinson, lived in Upper Jay on route 9N not far from Walter's house. Paul had an appliance store next to his home where he later did gunsmithing and ran a country store and lived to be around ninety years of age. He was a greatly respected man and was very kind to my brother and me as we were growing up. We loved going to his store and visiting with him. A few short years before he passed away he shared how he loved taking piano lessons when he was a young man but had to give them up because of the time involved away from chores since he had to walk from Upper Jay to Wilmington, a distance of over 10 miles round trip, for his lessons. He never resumed taking lessons or playing the piano and related to me that it was something he'd always regretted. I will never forget how kind Paul and Walter were.
Walt's work was meticulous in every detail. Arto Monaco, designer and owner of "The Land of Makebelieve", once a theme park in Upper Jay, once told me that Walter painted automobiles with a brush and no one was able to tell, thinking, rather, that they were spray painted. He was a stickler for detail. I know that when I worked for him doing yard work, he insisted on a job well done.
As the years passed by, I let someone take my blonde-varnished Walter I. Robinson violin and somehow lost track of it. I have absolutely no idea what ever happened to it. At one time I had a huge collection of violins and would buy, swap, trade, sell, & wheel-and-deal and somehow, I lost the violin. I've been heart-sick ever since, having had such a treasure and losing possession of it. Fast forward many, many years.....
This April, 2010, dear and close friends of my girlfriend, Mary Winchell, and fairly recent friends of mine, invited us over to visit and out of the blue, during our fun-filled conversations, gave me a Walter I. Robinson violin. I nearly fell over! What a wonderful gift! It's a root-beer colored violin that Walter made in 1916. I replaced the strings with Dr. Thomastik's and cleaned it up a bit, re-glued the saddle, put a newer tailpiece with string adjusters on (saving the original tailpiece aside) and slowly over a period of several days, brought it up to concert pitch. The sound this violin projects is PHENOMENAL! Words cannot begin to describe the joyful feelings I have to actually have such a wonderful violin made by such a wonderful man in my hands again. Rest assured, I will not lose this one. It has found a loving and caring home. It has renewed my interest in violin playing. To say I'm overwhelmed with joy is an understatement!
Recently, Mary and I went to our friend's home to visit them and to thank them again for such a wonderful act of kindness and I brought the violin and played a reel and a couple of waltzes for them. They enjoyed hearing the violin and kindly "suffered" through my playing which has diminished in ability in the years following heart surgery due to numbness in my ring and pinky fingers in both hands.
Having known the violin maker personally and to have carelessly lost ownership of one of his violins only to obtain a more beautiful violin of his making in the closing chapters of my life speaks volumes to me about divinely mysterious gifts appearing through truly wonderful friends. Mary and I are so blessed in life. Not by monetary riches, but rather by truly wonderful acts of kindness. Bestowing gifts and acts of kindness on others has always given Mary and me warm feelings, and when the direction reverses, similar tears of genuine happiness form.
Orville M. Robinson was born in 1838 in Vermont. He lived in Upper Jay before moving to Penn Yan, NY and then to St. Paul, Minnesota. His son, William, was born in 1859 and lived until 1954. William's son, Walter, was born in 1883 and passed away in 1978. His son, Paul was born in 1904 and lived until passing away in 1995. Walter, his wife Blanche Flagg Robinson, and Paul and his wife Elsie Gordon Robinson, are buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Upper Jay.
Note: Walter I. Robinson violins are valued from $8,800.00 to 31,875.00
