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DHV:
490
Tourin ID:
LEIPA 10

Size:

Treble

Place Made:

Maker:

D

Leipzig

Johann Christian

Hoffmann

Date:

1728

Label Text:

Joh: Christian Hoffmann. / König. Poln. und Churf. / Sächs. Hoff Instrument und / Lautenmacher. Leipzig 1728. [handwritten]

Body Shape:

Viol

Current Location:

D

Leipzig

No. of Strings:

6

Collection:

Universität Leipzig

Sound Holes:

C

Catalog Number:

795

Head:

Female

Private Owner:

Previous Owner:

Wilhelm Heyer, Cologne; Paul de Wit, Leipzig

Measurements:

Body Length:

39.7

String Length:

37

Rib Depth:

5.3

Upper Width:

20.3

Middle Width:

14.7

Bottom Width:

24.4

Information

Source:

Martius 2015, pp. 352-53; museum to Martius to TGM, 1/07; Kinsky 1912, 2:449

Literature:

Martius 2015, pp. 352-53; Heyde 1986, p. 120; Schrammek 1986, pp. 63-64; Kinsky 1912, 2:449; De Wit 1903, p. 95

Photographs:

Martius 2015, pp. 244 (rosette [color]), 352-53 (FB+S, X-ray of front body only, rosette, label [color]; on museum’s website (front [color]); [unpublished, from museum via K. Martius 1/07: F+S]

Recordings:

Auctions:

Comments:

Martius JCH 14. Table with single purfling plus ebony edging, rosette, and wide recurve; original, short, integral bass bar. 1-piece back with 2 wings and visible fold line (now flattened out); top block contains remains of original through-neck. Coverted to a viola, then reconverted to a viol (before 1903) without enlarging the ribs, but with neck and head evidently based on other Hoffmann viols; neck, pegbox, head, fingerboard, and tailpiece not original. Dendrochronology (by Micha Beuting) gives date of 1705 for youngest growth ring on table. Back widths 19.8/13.6/24.4; drawing by Ute Singer (2011) at museum. Heyde 1986: closely modeled on a French original, because body proportions make sense only if based on Parisian rather than Saxon units of measurement. (His dimensions 39.4, 20.0/13.9/24.5, 5.8, -.) Schrammek 1986: originally a 5-string viola d’amore without sympathetic strings, “resconstructed” c. 1910 “unter der Leitung von Georg Kinsky” from a viola conversion to a 6-string setup for A tuning, with new neck, fingerboard, pegbox, and head based on Hoffmann’s tenor viol LEIPC 11/ inv. no. 805. Kinsky 1912: “Alt-viola da braccio,” dimensions 39.5, 20/-/24.5, 6, -.

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