Bill's Stories -- Maine Violin Maker #1

E.S. Dow

Bill Dalbec is 84, with a gravelly voice. Based in Portland, Maine, he gives hints of having had a very colorful life, with adventures and regrets, ups and downs, a broad range of jobs from blue collar to white collar, and a few secrets along the way.

In recent decades, he got into the violin business — buying, repairing, selling — and unlike the average violin shop or violin maker, Bill dived into the world of buying violins at flea markets, estate sales, and in some very unusual situations — buying family heirloom violins so someone can pay their heating bill, or dealing with unscrupulous violin sharks, demanding teachers, needy beginners, helping students who have no money, and donating to historical societies. In many cases, he learned curious stories about the violins or their makers, and sometimes researched what he could about them.

I interviewed him recently to capture a few of his violin stories. This first one is about a violin maker from Falmouth, Maine, who was active in the late 19th, early 20th centuries.

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Bill Dalbec: Story #1

In looking into Maine violin makers, I came across an extremely interesting one. It was a guy in Falmouth, Maine, right on Route 1, house is still there, workshop is still there, I think it’s about to be sold or torn down.

This guy’s name was Edward S. Dow. I went to a lecture by Jon Cooper [well-known Portland area violin maker] one night in Yarmouth in the upper levels of the library. The historical society had a talk in the library there. And he talked about this guy, Dow the violin maker, and I got determined, why not look for one? I looked and looked and tried, and I went to Yarmouth where I thought he lived at the time, and I went to all the antique shops, and I tried my best to get one, and I couldn’t find one.

So I’d say around 15 years ago there was a downturn in real estate in Portland, which is interesting because the violins come forward to me sometimes in negative situations in society. An example would be Covid, got me a lot of violins. Winter coming on, oil season, gets me a lot of violins. People of central Maine when they have no oil for winter, they’ll post their violins for sale, and I’ll travel up the coast and get them.

So it’s too bad that negative stuff brings the violins to the forefront for sale, but that’s how it happens. I used to go primarily to yard sales, flea markets, or look in Uncle Henry’s, and I would get violins that way.

One day I’m sitting home and the phone rings and it’s a lady, she says, “I got a violin for sale, are you interested?” I said, “Well, not really, but I’ll come take a look at it anyway for you.”

So it turns out she started her own real estate company and it went south on her, meantime her husband divorced her, so that left her wanting some money. So I looked at the violin and I never saw that it was an American violin, or E.S. Dow, or nothing like that, I just saw it as an old, well-made violin.

“How much do you want for it?” I said.

“Make me an offer,” she says.

“Alright, I’ll make you an offer,” I said. “$250.”

She got right up out of her chair and said, “That’s not enough money.”

I said, “OK, what do you want for it?”

She says to me, “$350!”

I said, “Sold!” So I bought the violin, I took it home, started looking through it, and it said E. S. Dow inside! So I said, “That’s fantastic, that’s the guy from Route 1 in Falmouth that Jon Cooper had lectured on.” Jon had never seen one of his violins.

So I said, well I’m going to go to the Falmouth Historical Society and see what they know. So my wife and I jump in the car and we drive up there.

My wife says, “Bill, I don’t see anyone around.”

I said, “Just go up there and knock on the door.” They had a big antique home there that was the historical society.

So she knocked on the door. A guy comes to the door. He’s speaking very quietly, a very elderly man, and says, “What can I do for you?”

She said, “I’m looking for some information on an individual.”

“Well,” he says, “we’re having a meeting right now, I can’t really help you. But what individual are looking for information on?”

She says, “I’m looking for information on E. S. Dow.” I notice this arm come out of the historical society, grab my wife and drag her inside. I’m out in the car and I’m thinking, “Jesus, what’s going on?”

It turns out the guy was looking for E. S. Dow himself because E.S. Dow was, well there’s a picture of him there standing in front of his shop and it says, “E. S. Dow — wagon maker, clock maker, violin maker.” And his wagon is now on display at the Falmouth Historical Society, it’s an absolutely stunning wagon.

After a long period of time, I sold the violin to that guy. It turns out that the Dow family is one of two Dow families in Falmouth but this particular Dow family were from Monhegan Island. E.S.’s mother was from Monhegan, and that family came over very early to America, in the 1600s.

That guy wasn’t a Dow himself, he was a Merrill, kind of a local millionaire who endowed the historical society with money and property. He bought the violin for display at the society. He offered me a small fortune, but I refused it, I know that sounds awkward now, but I just took a small profit because I was selling it to a nonprofit, and well, to be honest, I’d done some illegal lobstering there years ago and I felt I owed the town something anyway!

One time they called me up and asked me to give a lecture on the violin, and when I went back, lo and behold, the violin was gone. They’d had a special display case built for it and everything, and I asked them, “Where’s it gone to?” And the guy said they let young Falmouth players who are qualified use it in high school or college on a loan program that the guy had established when he bought the violin from me.

So that’s the E. S. Dow violin from Falmouth, Maine.

I went to his workshop one time. Many years ago, Dow’s son lived near me on Front Street in Portland. He had a beautiful home and I used to go by his house and look at the flowers. His grandson also became an acquaintance of mine, and they offered to take me into the workshop to see where he made the violins.

The puzzle is, there are people who make a career out of making violins, and these Maine violin makers’ violins were pretty close to equal to them. So how did they accomplish that level? That is something that a lot of us have asked ourselves.

The Dow violin has Italian flares to it. It looks Italian, it feel Italian, it plays Italian. I offered to do a demonstration to one of the larger more expensive nursing homes in Maine, I don’t remember the name, they’re always advertising on TV. So I had this Japanese client of mine, and her name was Megumi. She taught in Portland and married a Scottish guy, incidentally. I asked if I could pay her to play the Dow violin for the historical society.

When she started playing, the whole audience broke down and started crying. One of the audience members stood up and asked her to stop playing. That’s how dramatic this violin was. Made by a guy in Falmouth Maine in 1874.

So I finally went to Evergreen cemetery and found his grave, and I put a little brass violin on top of his gravestone. And I continued that habit to this day. I have these little brass violins that I purchased, and I leave them on top of the gravestones of violin makers.