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Bass viol

'Festooned body. Back of two pieces of sycamore. Belly of two pieces of pine, with purfled ornament and soundholes of a serpentine shape (once wavy altered to f form); also a rose with an eagle, finely carved, partly gilt. Tailpiece and fingerboard decorated with a marquetry pattern in ebony and ivory. The instrument has been renecked at some date with the neck of the violoncello type.The pegbox, with a carved head of a woman with hair tied in a bow in the eighteenth century manner, was originally a viol pegbox for six strings, tghe wholse for two of them now being plugged.' - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard insturments. (London, 1998), p. 5 - 6.

  • Date:
    1639 (made)
  • Maker:
    Hiltz, Paul
  • Collection:
    Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Inventory number:
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  • Place of production:
    Nuremberg
  • Culture:
  • Period:
  • Materials:Ebony and ivory marquetry, planed sycamore and pine.
  • Specific materials/techniques:
  • Decorative elements:
  • Inscriptions:Paolo Hi .../ ...fecit/ ... anno 1639. Paul Hiltz ... made in the year 1639.
  • Hornbostel-Sachs category:
  • Repository:Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Measurements:Length: 121 cm total, Length: 70 cm belly, Depth: 13 cm, Width: 39.5 cm maximum