Archlute.

Technical description: Bookmatched soundboard of spruce. A section of the soundboard (38mm wide) at the treble edge has been replaced. The bridge is of fruitwood, 160mm long and width tapering from 10mm (treble) to 14mm (bass). Heart shaped terminals at each end. Geometric rose carved into the soundboard, 91mm diameter. Added piece of soundboard wood at the top, in between the fingerboard extensions, possibly from the same source as the added piece on the treble side. Several filled holes on the soundboard are symmetrical, showing that the damage had occurred before the wood was used in the instrument. Back of rosewood with bone spacers. 25 ribs in total, the outer ribs approximately twice the wide of the others. Rosewood capping piece. Edging around the soundboard of black stained fruitwood, but in some places there are inner strips of ebony. The fretted neck is veneered in rosewood. The bass neck appears to be of pine, painted black at the sides, and veneered on the top and back surfaces with rosewood, edged and lined with bone. The top end of the back surface has an inverted V-shaped inlay pattern of bone and rosewood. The end of the neck folds over on itself towards the top, and has a protruding piece of rosewood (not original) over which the strings pass. There are eight rosewood pegs with bone buttons. The pegs for the fretted strings are also of rosewood with bone buttons. There is a cast brass strap holder on the back of the neck above the fretted string's pegs, the design is of a lion's head. The fingerboard is of ebony, as is the nut. The fretted section of the neck is 305mm long, 81mm wide at the nut and 99mm wide at the body join. The fingerboard itself is 286mm long. There are ebony fingerboard extensions at each side, which go onto the soundboard, and a curved triangle from the bottom of the fingerboard and a heart in between the fingerboard and the first ebony fret on the soundboard, both made of ebony. There are 9 gut frets on the neck, and 5 ebony frets glued to the soundboard. Repair History: It is likely that the original edging was ebony, and that the fruitwood is later.