DHV:
880
Tourin ID:
VIC 04
Size:
Bass
Place Made:
Maker:
GB
Oxford
John
Baker
Date:
1688
Label Text:
Jno. Baker / Oxon 1688 [handwritten]
Body Shape:
Viol
Current Location:
GB
London
No. of Strings:
-4
Collection:
Victoria & Albert Museum
Sound Holes:
C
Catalog Number:
171-1882
Head:
Scroll
Private Owner:
Previous Owner:
Carl Engel (in 1876)
Measurements:
Body Length:
68.5
String Length:
61
Rib Depth:
12.2
Upper Width:
32
Middle Width:
23
Bottom Width:
39
Information
Source:
Baines 1968, p. 4
Literature:
Vannes 1999, p. 17; Baines 1968, p. 4; Engel 1876, p. 69; Engel 1874, p. 361
Photographs:
Baines 1968, fig. 3 (F+B 3/4) [unpublished, from J. Pringle: label]
Recordings:
Auctions:
Comments:
5-piece table with central ornament, 3-piece back; both with double purfling. Unusually wide lower bouts; only cloth linings. Neck and crude cello-style scroll are later; modern fingerboard and tailpiece, the former inlaid with light-colored wood. On loan to Oxford County Museum in 1977 (and still in 2001). Engel 1876: “originally made with only four strings, and has evidently never been tampered with” (and similarly in Engel 1874; also in Vidal 1878). Vannes says label reads “Made by John Baker in Oxford, anno 1688”; Henley gives same text (from unspecified instrument) but with date 1692.