One of the first fiddles used by a popular CBC music star will be auctioned off later this month. Don Messer bought the fiddle in 1930 for $105. It has been at the Nova Scotia provincial archives since Messer died in 1973.
     According to the archives:

Across the country, tens of thousands of Canadians sat by their radios three times a week from 1939 to 1958, listening to ‘Don Messer and His Islanders‘ broadcast from Charlottetown, PEI on CBC Radio. With the advent of television, Messer moved seamlessly across to the new medium, bringing his audience with him. Thousands more watched ‘Don Messer’s Jubilee’ weekly, 1956-69, produced by CBC Television in Halifax, NS. When the program was cancelled, there was a national uproar; thirty-five years later, some people miss it still.

The plain brown fiddle is a copy of a Stradivarius — the invaluable stringed instruments made by Italian Antonio Stradivari in the late 1600s. There are less than 700 such instruments left in the world, highly prized for producing exceptional sound.
     Messer had some 14 fiddles in his lifetime. A few have been sold and others given to friends. One fiddle was bought in 2004 for $8,000 at an auction.

Watch a clip from Don Messer’s Jubliee (March 4, 1968)

CBC Arts: Early Don Messer fiddle to be sold

	Email This Post
	Archives/Vintage Media, Personalities