Otakar F. Špidlen

He was born in 1896 in Kiev where his father Frantisek worked first for Jindrich Jindrisek and later in Moscow as the violin-maker of the Imperial Academy. When he was eleven (1907) he returned with his family to Bohemia. They lived for a while in Litomerice, then two years were spent in Pokratice near Litomerice and in 1910 they settled in Prague. After the death of Frantisek Spidlen in 1916 the then twenty-year-old Otakar had to take over the firm in Krizovnicka street and support his younger siblings. In 1919 he married Marie, née Blovska, and a year later they had a son Premysl, in 1922 a daughter Libuse and in 1930 Marie.

Otakar Spidlen, an apprentice in his father’s workshop, was a highly talented violin-maker. Despite his youth he was soon well liked and respected. Apart from making new instruments he was fascinated by old instruments and was also a skillful dealer and expert. Countless rare instruments passed through his hands and he was visited by distinguished customers such as Jan Kubelik, Vasa Prihoda and others. In 1926 he moved the family firm to Jungmannova street where it remains to this day. Otakar Spidlen was highly enterprising and he raised the two-storeyed house above his workshop by another three floors.

After the Communist takeover in 1948, from a successful and prosperous violin-maker and tradesman, he suddenly became an “enemy of the working class”. Certain figures in power even tried to drive the family from Prague. The house and shop were eventually confiscated. During the Communist regime it was forbidden to run a company privately. In order to protect the free violin-making trade, Otakar Spidlen, along with other violin-makers, planned to found the Violin-Makers’ Artists’ Circle, registered under the Ministry of Culture. Thus violin-makers would be classed along with other artists (composers, painters, sculptors etc.) and would at least be able to carry on working independently. The dispirited Otakar F. Spidlen died on 24.5.1958, however, and so his son Premysl became a founding member.