Hurdy-gurdy

Guitar-shaped hurdy-gurdy (vielle en guitare); composite. Six strings. Compass two octaves: thirteen natural keys, ten accidentals. Front one-piece, of open-grained mahogany; two C-shaped soundholes at bottom of front. Striped ribs of black wood separated with white lines. Marquetry inlay in rib joint at tail. Vaulted back of same style. Pegbox of fruit-wood. Six pegs with ivory buttons. Keybox of mahogany; cover of ?lime with two coil-and-staple hinges and a turn-button latch of bone. Triangular-section moveable nut. Wheel of ?boxwood, turned by S-shaped crank of iron; ivory handle. Main bridge and wheel-cover missing. An 18th-century vaulted guitar back has been re-used to make a hurdy-gurdy, possibly in the 19th century.