Wilkanowski

Władysław 'William "Willy" Poland – December 8, 1954, Long Island, US) was a Polish-American violin-maker, guitar-maker and violinist. He was a very productive luthier, known for making over 5000 violins and 100 violas with his staff at his workshop. He also created 30 unique, high-end archtop guitars, one of which, the Wilkanowski Airway W-4, was famously owned by Johnny Cash since the 1980s, when it also was featured as the centerfold in the Guitar World magazine.

Wilkanowski was also known to be a family man, doting on his wife Amelia (1886 – May 6, 1952), with whom he had raised 9 surviving children. When Amelia got sick, in 1950 he moved his workshop to their Long Island home to be close to her and look after her. After she died of the illness in 1952, he became very depressed and despondent without her. In early December 1954, he finally committed suicide As countless Poles would do to assimilate in the United States, he changed his Polish first name Wladyslaw and Grobinska. in New York. Together they seem to have registered 11 children in total, 8 daughters and 3 sons. 9 of their children would survive them – the 7 daughters Helene, Genowefa/Genevieve, Carolyne, Florence, Irene, Viola and Natalie, and the 2 sons Henry and Theodore Joseph. In the 1940 New York census, Amelia is listed as Emily and 53 years old, 1 year older than William listed as "Wm", 52 years old. Five of their youngest children – the 3 girls and 2 sons – are listed living with the parents in the same 1940 census, which indicates their 5 oldest daughters already moved out and married. The name Joseph seems to have been significant to Wilkanowski, who would also label some of his violins with the name "Juzek", which is the slightly misspelled Polish diminutive of Joseph.

The Wilkanowski couple had a daughter, Isabella (1912–1945, married Reges), who worked as a waitress and unfortunately died by accident in Sept. 1945, aged 32. William provided herthe cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning.

William's own registration card from April 1942 has a small but detailed description of him, providing the date and place of his birth, misspelled as the non-existing place "Dziatyn" (as the Polish small letter ł looks very much like the Latin t), his age as 56 which was then crossed over and corrected to the factual 55, as he had his birthday in November; his height as 5'4, his weight as 155 pounds, his eye color as brown, hair as gray and complexion as ruddy. In the occupation field, William did not disclose himself as a luthier, but as self employed.

The obituary in The Brooklyn Eagle of Saturday, December 11, 1954, describes in detail the death of William as suicide by hanging and that his body was found Wednesday December 8 in his home by Henry, who stopped by to pick his father up for a family dinner. William was interred on Monday December 13, 1954, in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, Nassau County NY, next to his wife.

After his death, a number of unfinished and dusty violins were found in his home. It seems as some of them were then finished by his coworkers or family members, as some Wilkanowski violins have labels dated later than 1952.

Literature Bacon, Tony. (2005) The History of the American Guitar. Hunter, Dave. (2003) Acoustic Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. Thunder Bay Press. Fairfield, John H. (1942) Known Violin Makers''. Virtuoso Pubns Inc.