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Lute

'The body is of nine ivory ribs with ebony stringing intervening. Pine belly with carved rose. Ivory lace. The neck and the back of the head are decorated with floral scrollwork in marquetry of ebony and ivory. Plain ebony fingerboard. The reflexed head holds twenty-one ivory pegs, one of which is a raised peg for the treble string. Eleven courses of strings, the first being single, the rest double.' Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Part II: Non-Keyboard Instruments (London, 1978), p. 30.

  • Date:
    ca. 1630 (made)
  • Maker:
    Unknown
  • Collection:
    Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Inventory number:
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  • Place of production:
    Venice (city)
  • Culture:
  • Period:
  • Materials:Ebony and ivory inlay, ebony stringing, gluing of ivory, carving
  • Specific materials/techniques:
  • Decorative elements:
  • Inscriptions:
  • Hornbostel-Sachs category:
  • Repository:Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Measurements:Length: 82 cm maximum, Width: 30 cm width of body, Length: 69 cm string length, Length: 46 cm body without neck, Length: 28 cm neck from nut to joint with body, Height: 170 mm