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This mandolin is particularly interesting with its petite size, intricately carved rose and engraved ivory decorations, including a grotesque face. Another hybrid instrument with single gut strings rather than iron, and probably tuned like a modern mandolin or violin, but with two re-entrant strings. Government allocation to the University. (C.H. Brackenbury Memorial Collection).
Brescian Mandolin
Bergonzi
Europe
Italy
Southern Europe

Instrument Information

Title

Brescian Mandolin

Accession Number

1061

Collection

MIMEd; C.H. Brackenbury Memorial Collection

Date Information

Date Made

1755

Period

18th century; 1750s

Gallery Information

Gallery

Wolfson Gallery

Case

Plucked strings case 5

Maker Information

Maker Name

Bergonzi

Maker Biography

The Bergonzi family were instrument makers in Cremona Italy. They were primarily luthiers making violins and were active in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The family began with Carlo (1683-1747) who was a master violin maker. He was overshadowed by his contemporaries Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri. It is not clear who Carlo trained with but he may have trained with one of these makers. The Stradivari family had considerable wealth and property and from 1745 Carlo and the family are recorded as living on the Casa Stradivari. This suggests that the family had a close connection to the Stradivari’s. Carlo’s son Michele Angelo continued the instrument making tradition as did Carlo’s grandson Nicola and later Nicola’s son Benedetto.

Made In

Country

Italy

Description

Technical Description

Soundboard of one piece of spruce. Bridge of maple (?) topped with an engraved piece of ivory. Bridge 95mm long and 12.5mm wide at the bottom. Inlaid rose of a geometrical design in wood. Rosehole diameter 76.9mm with two scribed lines acting as purfling. Inlaid ivory parallelogram pickguard between the bridge and the rosehole. The edging around the soundboard consists of alternate joining triangles of ebony and ivory. There are ebony extensions from the fingerboard onto the soundboard. The back is of 13 ribs of walnut, with holly (?) spacers. The exterior is rounded rather than faceted. Capping piece at the bottom of walnut and there is an ebony added piece around the ribs next to the soundboard to provide extra gluing area. The neck and head are of lime, stained to match the walnut ribs, with inlaid ebony and ivory strips in the back. The neck flows smoothly into the head, which has an inlaid piece of engraved ivory on the back surface. The head ends with a square finial, topped with a piece of ivory engraved with a grotesque head. The top edges of the head have been veneered in bands of ebony/ivory/ebony, and there is a band of engraved ivory behind the nut and a piece of engraved ivory from the upper edge of that piece down the slope to the top surface of the back of the head. Six fruitwood pegs, four are probably original with oval heads, the other two appear to come from a violin. The nut and the fingerboard are of ivory. Ebony frets, originally six in total. The neck is 90mm long, 45.5mm wide at the nut and 52mm wide at the body join.

Provenance

ex- Van Raalte Collection;according to Galpin, Hill et al. (1909), formerly property of the DOSI family. ; Government allocation to the University, 1991.

Classification

Instrument

Brescian Mandolin

Instrument Family

Strings ; Strings

Hornbostel Sachs Classification

musical instrument ; 321.321-5