Viola d'amore

'Festooned model. Belly of two pieces of pine, with 'flame' soundholes and a small carved and gilt rose showing the arms of Franz Anton Graf von Harrach, Prince-Bishop of Salzburg from 1709 to 1727. Two-piece back with applied decoration. Pegbox with a winged cupid's head, gilt. The Ebony tailpiece is shaped obliquely and attached to an ivory hook-bar. Ebony fingerboard with shaped end. Seven stained pehs for the gut playing strings. The eight wire sympathetic strings are attached to hitch pins above the nut and are tuned by wrest pins in the bottom block of the body, accessible though sliding traps, one on each side of the hook-bar.' - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 10.