Viola da Gamba Society of America

18..

Treble ?

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# of Strings:

6

Place Made:

F, Mirecourt

Body Shape:

Viol

Current Location:

USA, New York, NY

Sound Holes:

C

Collection:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head:

Male

Catalog Number:

89.4.944

Label Text:

[None]

Measurements:

String Length:

41.8

Total Length:

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Body Length:

36.5

Upper Width:

19.7

Rib Depth:

4.1

Middle Width:

12.9

Bottom Width:

23.2

Previous Owner:

Crosby Brown, -1889

Information Source:

Monical 1979, p. 7

Literature:

Photographs:

Recordings:

Auctions:

Comments:

Monical 1989a, p. 14; Monical 1979, p. 7

On museum’s website (back, head 3/4, bass C-hole); Monical 1989a, p. 14 (F+S); Monical 1979, p. 6 (F+S)

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Monical (text and photos): small tenor viol, fantasy form, with extremely long neck for its body size; probably made for ornamental rather than performance purposes. Back shows St. Cecilia with cherubs, angels, and animals; shallow ribs have complementary floral decoration; table and pegbox have black-and-white edging. Carved male head with long, projecting beard is grafted to pegbox; inlaid fingerboard; very short tailpiece with diagonal upper edge and tail gut. C-holes set low and very diagonal, with bulge at midppoint of outer edges.