DHV:
756
Tourin ID:
ROM 4
Size:
Bass
Place Made:
Maker:
GB
London
Barak
Norman
Date:
Label Text:
Barak Norman [stamped in circle in table ornament]
Body Shape:
Viol
Current Location:
CDN
Toronto, ON
No. of Strings:
-4
Collection:
Royal Ontario Museum
Sound Holes:
C
Catalog Number:
913.4.29
Head:
Open scroll
Private Owner:
Previous Owner:
R. S. Williams, Toronto, -1913
Measurements:
Body Length:
62.5
String Length:
66.7
Rib Depth:
10.9
Upper Width:
28.3
Middle Width:
21
Bottom Width:
34.5
Information
Source:
TGM visit 1/07; museum to TGM, 11/06; PT visit 10/78
Literature:
Hebbert 2001, p. 308 (X:08)
Photographs:
[By TGM: FB+S, table ornament (color)]; [unpublished, from museum, from 1974 restoration: body with table removed, neck off (2 each), treble ribs]
Recordings:
Auctions:
Comments:
3-piece table with floral ornament and low arching, 2-piece back, both with double purfling. Converted to cello; scroll and pegbox integral with neck, so not original (but neck has appropriately-faceted heel); mahogany fingerboard, tailpiece, and nut, all from 1974 resotration by Neil Haddon, who also made crossbars for the back (reporting no evidence of their presence previously) and “increased in thickness by neans of laminated veneer” the internal surfaces of back and ribs (label: “Repaired 1974 / Neil D. Haddon / for the / Royal Ontario Museum”; typed and handwritten report in museum file); very bad worm damage to ribs and various cracks had been repaired previously, including significant patches on treble shoulder and at/near bottom block. His dimensions 62.0, 28.7/21.0//34.0, 11.7; “W. Marsh” inscribed on rib patch and “WSM” on back at neck heel: possibly the person who did cello conversion. Table ornament Type IV, back center Type III, above and below Type II.