Battle Creek · listed 1916
Historical maker
Named in 4 books.
What the books printed
Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston, 1640–1936, Ayars, Christine Merrick. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1937. Ayars (1937), pp. 198–200, read from the page images. Her footnote for the Victor paragraph is the Guide’s p. 39 — which says “son of,” not “worked with him” — so the working link is her own addition, unsourced in the entry..
Son of Jerome Bonaparte Squier (born Ohio 1838, died Boston 1912), and worked with him: “His son, Victor Carroll, who worked with him, now has his own business in Battle Creek, Michigan, as stringed instrument maker, repairer and dealer, and manufacturer of wound strings.” The family’s road ran through Michigan: the father “came from Michigan to Lewiston, Maine,” where he took up violins, and thence to Boston.
His dates, and everything after 1928. No birth or death year is attested in the corpus — the Guide and Ayars both leave him living and undated — and the string business’s later history under his name is outside the evidence held. Michigan vital records or Battle Creek directories would settle the dates; the Guide’s later editions (1917, 1920, 1924) would date the shop.
The Violinist's Guide, Chicago: The Violinist Publishing Company, 1916. The Violinist’s Guide (1916), p. 39, read from the page image. The listing is the directory’s print; the note beneath it — “American; maker, repairer and dealer. Son of J. B. Squier. Manufacturer of wound strings.” — is self-supplied and entered separately..
Battle Creek, Michigan — 429 Lake Ave., coded “m.r.d.”, maker, repairer and dealer, in the 1916 trade directory.
The Violinist's Guide, Chicago: The Violinist Publishing Company, 1916. The Guide (1916), p. 39, read from the page image; self-supplied. Ayars (1937) repeats the phrase, citing the Guide as her footnote — the same statement twice, not two witnesses. It is the earliest attestation on record of the string manufacture carried on under his name..
Manufacturer of wound strings, alongside making, repair and dealing.
The Violinist's Guide, Chicago: The Violinist Publishing Company, 1916. The Guide (1916), p. 39, read from the page image. Victor’s note is self-supplied; the father’s deceased-maker entry is the compiler’s own memorial. The same volume’s advertising pages, p. 43, disperse “the violin collection of the late J. Bonaparte Squier” — the contact printed there is “J. E. Squier, 2 Park Square, Boston,” not Victor..
“Son of J. B. Squier” — the directory’s line; the father’s memorial entry stands on the same page: “Made and reconstructed 608 violins… One of foremost American makers; work highly esteemed,” with the “Apostles” series of twelve violins, each named after an apostle, and the “George Washington” and “Abraham Lincoln.”
Critical and Documentary Dictionary of Violin Makers Old and Modern, Poidras, Henri. Rouen: Imprimerie de la Vicomté, 1930. Plate facsimile 851, on the leaf facing p. 256 of Poidras vol. 2 (1930), read from the page image. Two numbering systems meet here and must not be confused: 695 is Squier’s own instrument number, written on the label; 851 is Poidras’s number for the facsimile. An earlier seeding cited plate 852, which is Reindahl’s..
Instrument No. 695 by 1928: the label facsimile in Poidras reads “No. 695 … Anno 1928,” both completed in manuscript.
Critical and Documentary Dictionary of Violin Makers Old and Modern, Poidras, Henri. Rouen: Imprimerie de la Vicomté, 1930. The same plate-851 reading, from the page image. The label prints the full name the directory abbreviates to “Victor C.”.
Printed label: “Victor Carroll Squier, Maker, Battle Creek, Mich.”, with “No.” and “Anno” blanks completed in manuscript and a circular VCS monogram at the right.
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Pratt, Waldo Selden, ed.. New York: Macmillan, 1920. Pratt, ed., Grove’s American Supplement (1920), p. 42, read from the page image; the entry ends “See Violinist’s Guide (1916), p. 39,” so Grove’s defers to the Guide for its facts. Entered as the father’s context; it says nothing of Victor..
The father’s standing in the reference literature: “after the Civil War noted as one of the best American violin-makers, with headquarters at Boston.”
- Entries from 4 books stand under this name, and nobody has judged yet whether they mean the same person.
Labels the books quote
- Printed label: “Victor Carroll Squier, Maker, Battle Creek, Mich.”, with “No.” and “Anno” blanks completed in manuscript and a circular VCS monogram at the right. (Critical and Documentary Dictionary of Violin Makers Old and Modern, 1930)
Same name
Whether any of these is the same person, the books do not say. 1 more Squier page under S.
Same town, same time
4 other Battle Creek makers have a year in the 1900s.
- listed 1916 Andress Mfg. Co.
- listed 1916 Cronk, H. L.
- listed 1916 Squier, Victor C.
- listed 1924 Cronk-Andres Musical String Co.