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Stringed instruments → Citterns → English guitar

English guitar

'Body and belly all of pine, with feather branding painted in red. Similarly painted simulated rose containing six diagonally placed holes through which small felted hammers spring out to strike the strings from below. Six small wooden keys on the lower left side of the belly actuate the hammers. Bridge missing. Ebony fingerboard with shaped end and twelve brass frets and three capotasto holes. Watch-key tuning. Finial broken.'. Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 52.

  • Date:
    ca. 1785 (made)
  • Maker:
    Claus, Christian
  • Collection:
    Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Inventory number:
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  • Place of production:
    London
  • Culture:
  • Period:
  • Materials:Carved and planed pine body with brass frets
  • Specific materials/techniques:
  • Decorative elements:
  • Inscriptions:Claus & Co. Inventor London, Patent-Instrument. No 7 Garrard Street.
  • Hornbostel-Sachs category:
  • Repository:Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Measurements:Length: 70 cm, Depth: 8.2 cm average