Jonas Elg

Biographies

John Dilworth Willibald Leo Lütgendorff

John Dilworth

ELG, Jonas Born circa. 1680, died 1732 Stockholm Sweden. Earliest recorded professional maker in Sweden. Retired from the army 1711. Licensed as musical instrument maker from 1710. Produced theorbos, lutes, viols, double basses, and a few violins. These are recognisable for their extraordinary soundholes: slender in the upper part but exaggerated in the lower part with broad extended lower wings (a mannerism detectable in later Swedish makers). Viola dated 1731, property of the city of Linköping, is of narrow model, the scroll also very slender, with painted purfling and thin slightly opaque brown varnish. Manuscript label: Jonas Elg / fecit Holmaiae / Anno 1731 [Nilsson]