In Focus: A 1909 violin by Erik Lindholm

Erik Lindholm was born in 1874 and grew up in Djurmo, a small village 150 miles north of Stockholm. He learnt the violin from his father. As the family could not afford a violin, the young boy made one himself. He studied in Markneukirchen and worked in Stuttgart and Cologne before returning to Sweden in 1907 to open his own violin shop in Stockholm. His skills in restoration were in demand and soon it became difficult to find the time for new making. In the late 1920s, with the decline of the silent-movie era, many cinema musicians became unemployed. This was closely followed by the Great Depression, and Lindholm was obliged to let his two employees go and reschedule his daily routines. He would close the shop at 6pm, take the bus home, have a light meal and sleep until 1am, whereupon he would catch the last bus back into town and work until 9am when the shop opened…