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Lyre guitar

"Lyre-shaped with hollow curving arms and an attached neck between. The back, slightly arched, is of two pieces of mahogany, each of which is continued to form the back of one of the arms. Belly of two pieces of pine, similarly extending up the arms. Two open soundholes with mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell mosaic edging, as also the edge of the belly. Pin bridge. The base of the body is flat, enabling the instrument to stand upright. The neck is joined to the body as on an ordinary guitar and is faced with a flat ebony fingerboard flush with the belly and with ornamental gilt wooden rods. The flat head is joined to the points of the arms by two ornamental gilt wooden rods. There are six rear pegs, for six gut strings." Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), pp. 64-65.

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  • Materials:Planed and joined pine soundboard; planed and joined mahogany; ebony and mother-of-pearl mosaic edging; ebony fingerboard with ivory frets; gilt wood rods.
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  • Repository:Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Measurements:Length: 87 cm total, Width: 36 cm width of belly, Depth: 10.5 cm below neck, Depth: 8 cm Depth of neck, Length: 67.5 cm string length