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DHV:
272
Tourin ID:
GAL 05, GALP 2, HALES 1

Size:

Treble

Place Made:

Maker:

GB

London

Barak

Norman

Date:

1700 C

Label Text:

Barak Norman London Fecit [stamped on table]

Body Shape:

Viol

Current Location:

I

Florence

No. of Strings:

6

Collection:

Private Collection

Sound Holes:

C

Catalog Number:

Head:

Scroll

Private Owner:

Yes

Previous Owner:

The Viola da Gamba Society (in 1968); Millicent Hales (c. 1950-65); Arnold Dolmetsch

Measurements:

Body Length:

39.4

String Length:

36

Rib Depth:

6

Upper Width:

18.7

Middle Width:

13.5

Bottom Width:

23.6

Information

Source:

J. Kraft drawing seen 9/02; Sotheby’s 5/22/80, lot 379

Literature:

Hebbert 2001, p. 311 (X:20); Wells 1980, p. 517; Sotheby’s 5/22/80, lot 379; Galpin Society 1968, p. 77 (no. 587); Galpin Society 1951 (no. 505)

Photographs:

Sotheby’s 5/22/80, lot 379 (F+B); [unpublished, from J. Kraft 9/02: FB+S body only (color)]; [unpublished, in Heale Archive, on display in 1951: front 3/4]

Recordings:

[4 dating from 1982-95, including 2 with Ensemble Isabella d’Este]

Auctions:

Comments:

Sotheby’s 1980/05/22, lot 379

Table ornament Type IX (unique); back center none, above and below Type I, plus V at neck; double purfling front and back. Sotheby’s: length of back 39.7; carved head by Arnold Dolmetsch. Repaired for present owner by J. Kraft, whose photos show that back was once folded at bottom as well as at top; black fingerboard with blond perimeter line; dimensions from drawing, so not over arching. Galpin 1968: “Depth of ribs at tail-piece 7.5 cms” [sic], c. 1690; body length 41.5, string length 35.5. Galpin 1951: “Labeled and stamped with maker’s crest,” c. 1700. M. Hales to G. Lyman 2/64: dimensions 42.2, 19.1/13.7/22.2, 6.7, 36.5 (converted from inches); closed scroll. “Arnold Dolmetsch...supplied it to Miss Hales about 1950”: John Catch, letter to editor of Chelys 23 (1994), 90. Bequeathed to the VdGS by M. Hales; sold by the VdGS at Sotheby’s in 1980. VdGS News Bulletin No. 13 (April 1975): “Mr. Kessler described the viol as probably an alto by Barak Norman.... The body is substantially original, the rest by Dolmetsch. ... The front is in three pieces.”

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