Viola d'Amore or Treble Viol

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Instrument

Viola d'amore/Viols/Strings/Musical Instrument ; Viola d'amore

Instrument Family

Strings

Date Made

Circa 1720

Description

This instrument has a soundboard of spruce; back, ribs, scroll and neck of sycamore; fingerboard and tailpiece of stained fruitwood, veneered with stained holly(?) and ivory; nut and tailpiece arm of ivory; pegs of ebony with mother-of-pearl dots. Flame type sound-holes, parchment rose measuring 119mm from the top of the body, oval shaped, 41mm long, 36mm wide. Purfling of ebony/sycamore/ebony, the sycamore strip being twice the thickness of the ebony strips. Back of two pieces with a strip of ebony running down the length at the centre, deep figure rising from the edges to the centre. Soundpost plate and support bars at the lower bout and fold inside. The strings attach to the tailpiece below the top surface. The fingerboard is floating, only attached to the neck in three places (at the two ends and in the middle). The strips are solid, so sympathetic strings could never have passed through the gap. Elaborately carved pegbox, finial carving of a blindfolded woman, sides of the pegbox feature carved floral work, and the back has renaissance-style strapwork and a grotesque head. Measurements: Neck length 157mm; fingerboard length 246-250mm, 38.2mm wide at nut, 56.7mm wide at bottom end; soundboard arch 17mm. Specific literature references: Engel 1872, Item 166; Hipkins 1885, p. 33. Illustration references: Vol. 1 p. 59; Hipkins and Gibb 1888, Plate XXVII.

Notes

D. Martin, 1993-94.

Measurements

785.

Collection

MIMEd ; Reid Collection

Accession Number

0333

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