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Alto viola da gamba (?)
late 19th century
Object Place: England
Medium/Technique
Maple, spruce, ebony
Dimensions
Length 68.8 cm, width 22 cm (Length 27 1/16 in., width 8 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection
Accession Number17.1713
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsMusical Instruments
ClassificationsMusical instruments – Chordophones
DescriptionLong, shallow model, influenced by violin type. Flat back of maple, in two pieces. Ribs of maple, apparently cut down. Belly of pine with raised edges and purfling; scimitar-shaped sound-holes; rosette with the three feathers of the Prince of Wales under the finger-board. Back fitted flush with ribs, belly with overhanging edges as in the violin. Neck and peg-box of pearwood, the head bent back and ending in a square similar to that of English guitars. Finger-board of ebony. Tail-piece of ebony, with slanting top; attached in violin fashion is an end-pin. Five gut strings pass over the violin type bridge (original one lost). Five box-wood pegs. Inside construction: corner blocks as in a violin; two cross-bars and a wide cross- strip glued to the back; deep bass-bar; sound-post. Grayish-brown varnish.
InscriptionsManuscript label: MADE. BY. / RichARD DUKE. / LONDON. 1786
ProvenanceFrancis W. Galpin (1858-1945), Hatfield Regis, England; 1916, sold by Francis W. Galpin to William Lindsey (1858-1922), Boston, Massachusetts; 1916, gift of William Lindsey, in memory of his daughter, Leslie Lindsey Mason, to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 5, 1916)