DHV:
133
Tourin ID:
BRIQUE 3
Size:
Treble ?
Place Made:
Maker:
D
Munich
Rudolph
Höss
Date:
1688 ?
Label Text:
Ruedolph Höß, Churfl. / Hof- Lautenmacher in / München, 16 [printed]; plus illegible handwritten digits, perhaps 88
Body Shape:
Viol
Current Location:
USA
New York, NY
No. of Strings:
5
Collection:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sound Holes:
Flame
Catalog Number:
89.4.947
Head:
Cupid
Private Owner:
Previous Owner:
Count Eugène de Bricqueville, Versailles, -after 1895
Measurements:
Body Length:
42.5
String Length:
42.5?
Rib Depth:
6.8
Upper Width:
21.4
Middle Width:
14.8
Bottom Width:
25.3
Information
Source:
TGM visit 3/05; Bricqueville 1895, p. 6; Bricqueville 1893, p. 6
Literature:
Museum’s website; Gétreau 1996, p. 282; Brown 1902, p. 65; Bricqueville 1895, p. 6; Bricqueville 1893, p. 6
Photographs:
On museum’s website (FB+S, head 3/4, bass C-hole); Brown 1902, facing p. 64 [by TGM: FB+S, head front (color)]
Recordings:
Auctions:
Comments:
2-piece table with narrow ebony edging; 2-piece back of bird’s-eye maple without purfling or clear fold line. Fingerboard has integral wedge. Soundholes similar to other Höß 5-string instruments, but stubbier at upper ends. 2 pegs treble, 3 bass side. Brown 1904: “Alto or small tenor viol...deep model.... Maker, Rudolph Churst,” but no date; “From the collection of the Count de Bricqueville.” Bricqueville: “Ténor de viole ... magnifique tête d’amour”; date 1620 [NB, can’t be right]; museum’s website classifies it as a “viola da braccio, mid 18th century, Germany” (Tourin: tenor). Not included in Monical 1979; catalogue card (based on his report) says: “Maker: unknown. Good original label does not belong with this instrument”; 18th C. neck and head probably not original. Old cat. card: restored 1938-39: ribs reinforced, cracks repaired, new bridge, frets, strings; on underside of tailpiece: “Restored Nov. 1938 by Fred J. Markert, Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y. City N.Y.”