DHV:
1006
Tourin ID:
​

Size:

Tenor

Label Text:

Place Made:

GB, ?

Maker:

William

Bowelesse

Date:

1600 C

William Bowelesse

Body Shape:

Cello

Current Location:

A, Vienna

Sound Holes:

C

Collection:

Vázquez, José

No. of Strings:

6

Catalog Number:

​

Head:

Female

Previous Owner:

Anonymous, Winterthur (CH), 1992-2016; W.E. Hill & Sons, London, 1912-1991

Measurements:

Body Length:

52.2

String Length:

54.7

Rib Depth:

7.2

Upper Width:

23.4

Middle Width:

15.9

Bottom Width:

29.8

Information Source:

Vázquez 1993, p. 11

Literature:

Photographs:

Recordings:

Auctions:

Comments:

Herzog 2003, GB-3; Hebbert 2003a; Fleming 2001, 2:326; Vázquez 1993, p. 11; Phillips 3/19/92, lot 185

Fleming & Bryan 2016, p. 67 (label); Fleming 2001: VME L93 (front 3/4 body only, back, head side [color]); Vázquez 1993, pl. 12-13 (F+B, head front 3/4 and side, bass C-hole and label [color]); Phillips 3/19/92, lot 185 (F+B, head side; latter also in color on cover)

​

Phillips 1992/03/19, lot 185

Sharply pointed corners, square shoulders; flat back with fold. In 1993, on loan to José Vázquez, Vienna; no. 8 in his catalogue; owned as of 12/2016. Fleming 2001: “Many features of this instrument are unusual for viols known to be made in England 1580-1660,” including 2-piece table, single purfling of unusual design and material, atypical finial carving, back and ribs of unidentified wood. TGM: Body shape very similar to undated Pellegrino Micheli bass (BL 59.6 cm) on Isolabella, but that has F-holes. Label originally read and discussed as “Bowcleffe,” but quite clearly “Bowelesse,” perhaps a variant spelling of Mace’s “Bolles.” Hebbert 2003a, p. 72: label uses a pseudo-Elizabethan script; attributable to Hill workshop, perhaps replacing a genuine one from that period; maker perhaps related to William Borracleff, a wealthy merchant tailor who died in 1601. Hill papers (at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) report “Bought at sale at Wimbledon, 1 Feb. 1912”; also include 1937 letter from A.F. Hill to Ashmolean saying “We have a treble viol made by Boles ... and this must certainly come to you” (though it never did): could he have meant this instrument? Formerly on display at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, according to J. Pringle, who saw it there in late 1970s; Vázquez says it was there since early 20th C.; Fleming says it was at Hall’s Croft, Stratford.