DHV:
1291
Tourin ID:
Size:
Bass
Place Made:
Maker:
GB
London
John
Shaw
Date:
1688
Label Text:
John Shaw, Instrument-maker in / Ordinary to his Majesty; liveth at / the Golden Harp and Ho-boy, next door / to the Fountain Tavern in the Strand, / near the Savoy, London. 1688. [all printed, including 88 and a following period]
Body Shape:
Viol
Current Location:
CH
Basel
No. of Strings:
6
Collection:
Private Collection
Sound Holes:
C
Catalog Number:
Head:
Open scroll
Private Owner:
Yes
Previous Owner:
Desmond Dupré (d. 1974, & his widow), -1985
Measurements:
Body Length:
70.2
String Length:
67.2
Rib Depth:
12.6
Upper Width:
31.9
Middle Width:
23.6
Bottom Width:
39.8
Information
Source:
TGM visit 11/10; B. Franklin to TGM, 7+10/02
Literature:
MacCracken 2016, p. 202
Photographs:
MacCracken 2016, p. 202 (FB+S); [by TGM: FB+S (color)]; [unpublished, from owner: front, front 7/8, back (partial), label (color)]
Recordings:
Franklin 2016 (Cellini Consort; Hingeston and Lupo for 3B only); Franklin 2005 (Simpson); [also presumably played by Dupré for Bach Sonatas with Dart (1957), also numerous discs with Deller]
Auctions:
Comments:
Table and back both 2-piece with double purfling but no other decoration. Neck, fingerboard and tailpiece, and scroll not original. Pegbox has unused 7th pair of holes; current veneered fingerboard and tailpiece replace earlier ones of solid ebony. Soundpost plate has beveled edges and looks newer than other back crossbars. Owner (in 2002) sent photo of label, and extensive dimensions (69.5, 31.6/23.5/40.0, 12.6, 67.5, plus plate thicknesses) done by an unnamed luthier. Hill, English Makers (typed notes at Ashmolean), gives virtually identical label text (leaving out “in Ordinary”) as “seen in a fine old viol by John Shaw at Puttick and Simpson’s, May 20th, 1904”; Lütgendorf also gives similar, but lacking the words “Instrument-maker in Ordinary to his Majesty; liveth” and with different line breaks; both with date 1688. (Shaw received this appointment in early 1688: see LaFontaine, The King’s Musick.)