DHV:
24
Tourin ID:
ASHMOL 3
Size:
Bass
Place Made:
Maker:
I
Brescia
Domenico
Russo
Date:
15..
Label Text:
Body Shape:
Cello
Current Location:
GB
Oxford
No. of Strings:
6
Collection:
Ashmolean Museum
Sound Holes:
3
Catalog Number:
WA1939.21 (Ash.02); Boyden 3
Head:
Male
Private Owner:
Previous Owner:
Messrs. Arthur and Alfred Hill, London, -1939
Measurements:
Body Length:
60.4
String Length:
61.3
Rib Depth:
Upper Width:
34.9
Middle Width:
21.9
Bottom Width:
40.7
Information
Source:
PT visit 6/77; Boyden 1969, pp. 8-9
Literature:
Fleming 2011, pp. 28-35, 78-79; Herzog 2003, IT-38; Topham 2002, p. 250; Boyden 1969, pp. 8-9
Photographs:
Fleming 2011, pp. 14, 28-35 (front 3/4, both sides, F+B body only, head FB+S, bottom rib, rosette, C-holes and corners, details of decoration (color); Fleming 2009, p. 125 (front [color]); Whiteley 2008, p. 9 (front [color]); Herzog 2002, p. 155 (front); David 1999, p. 56 (front); Boyden 1969, pl. 3 (FB+S, head FB+S); Baines 1966, pl. 93 (front)
Recordings:
Auctions:
Comments:
Boyden 1969: back of walnut, without purfling; ribs of sycamore, table of coarse-grained pine with single purfling. Pegbox and hookbar original, neck, fingerboard, and tailpiece are not. Topham 2002: could not establish a date for table using dendrochronology, but both pieces probably from same tree. Fleming 2011: intended nominal size “possibly bass” but maybe tenor. Shape and decoration very like INNS 7 (Russo); made after mid-16C, probably in Brescia, or in Spain given close resemblance to viol shown in El Greco’s Annunciation (Toledo, c. 1600). Table with single purfling, rosette, 11 diamond-shaped mosaic inlays of colored wood and ivory or bone (2 sizes and designs, probably mass-produced in Lombardy) and carved ridges bisecting corner angles; 1-piece unpurfled back and ribs of walnut. Ribs much deeper at bottom than sides, with molded external liners (probably glued first to back, then ribs). No corner blocks, minimal bottom block; top block with 4 now-empty nail holes may be original; no soundpost plate, though now has soundpost (and bass bar); 3 crossbars probably modern. Satyr’s head integral with narrow carved pegbox. Dimensions 59.6, 35.6/21.8/40.8, 15.3, 61.1 (widths with calipers). 3-shaped soundholes face inward (like Russo’s). Drawings by John Pringle (1983) formerly available from W.E. Hill & Sons.