Leopold Widhalm

Leopold Widhalm (2 October 1722, Horn, Austria — 10 June 1776, Nuremberg, Germany), sometimes "Withalm" or "Wiedhalm," was a German luthier often cited among the finest violin-makers in the generation that followed Jacobus Stainer (1619—1683), Matthias Alban (1634—1712), and Matthias Klotz (1653—1743). Widhalm's labels were typically printed: "Leopold Widhalm, Lauten - und Geigenmacher in Nürnberg fecit. A. 17__" and often accompanied with L W initials branded underneath. Germanisches Nationalmuseum has a significant collection of Widhalm's instruments. According to most historiographical sources, he was born in Horn, Lower Austria, in the family of a luthier, Mathias Widhalm. (However, his father's scarce biography indicates Mathias mainly flourished in Germany and relocated from Salzburg to Nürnberg circa 1716, before Leopold's recognized birthdate.) In October 1745, Leopold Widhalm joined a renowned luthiery workshop of the late Sebastian Schelle (1676—1744) in Gostenhof, a suburb of Nuremberg, operated by Sebastian's eldest daughter, Barbara Sybilla Schelle (1719—1781). They quickly established a romantic relationship, with a first child born "out of wedlock" in December of the same year. As a Roman Catholic in protestant Germany, Leopold faced legal persecution — first by the Rugsamt, the city's highest judicial and commercial trade authority, that punished Widhalm for "the fornication with Schelle" by fines and temporary expulsion from Nürnberg; by the summer of 1746, Leopold and Barbara finally gained the permission to get married. However, a reputable Nuremberg luthier, Leonhard Maussiell (1685—1760), fought hard to stop a foreign "Catholic journeyman" from taking over the renowned luthiery shop and kept bombarding Rugsamt with litigations and complaints. Maussiell managed to take over one of Sebastian Schelle's most lucrative former contracts (to supply Frauenkirche parish) but failed to prevent Widhalm from commanding the rest of the business. Despite initial hurdles, Leopold and Barbara Widhalm established and ran the largest and one of the most successful luthiery operations in Nuremberg over the next three decades, making lutes, violins, violas, viols, violoncellos, cellos, double basses, and harps. Widhalm's violins were primarily based on Jacob Stainer's large models, with light yellow to orange-red varnish and scrolls often made of pear wood. Leopold's finest instruments are dated between 1760 and 1770, with his craftsmanship deteriorating in his final years. After Leopold passed away in 1776, Barbara again took over the family business. She died five years later, in 1781, leaving the workshop to three of their six children who all became luthiers: Martin Leopold Widhalm (1747—1806), Gallus Ignatius Widhalm (1752–1822), and Veit Anton Widhalm (1756—1800). The brothers barely made any changes and continued using identical labels, simply reprinted with "…fecit. A. 18__" date. (Only Veit-Anton deviated from the family's Steiner canon and worked after Stradivarius 1693 models.) In September 1822, after Gallus Ignatius died, his son and Leopold's grandson, Johann Martin Leopold Widhalm (1799—c. 1855), briefly took over the family operation.