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Psaltery (arpanetta)
about 1670
Object Place: Germany
Medium/Technique
Spruce
Dimensions
Height 116 cm, width 38.4 cm, depth 8.4 cm (Height 45 11/16 in., width 15 1/8 in., depth 3 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection
Accession Number17.1773
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsMusical Instruments
ClassificationsMusical instruments – Chordophones
DescriptionA vertical, shallow sound-box placed on two feet, with strings on both sides. Ornamented with painted Cupids, birds, and flowers. A portrait of a lady on the front. The left-hand side sound-board has one rosette sound-hole and thirty-six strings passing over a single bridge. The right-hand sound-board has two rosettes and seventy-three strings divided into tow groups; a group of fifty-one strings fixed at the upper end to a curved bar and passing over a curved bridge close by, then over a straight bridge at the bottom; a group of twenty-two strings fixed to another curved bar and passing over the straight bridge at the bottom.
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)