English guitar

The back of this English guittar has been outlined in pen and ink. The rose of gilt cast brass is also a common type, ornamented with a winged boy, holding a long garland within an outer band of instruments, which include four coiled hunting horns. The soundbox is varnished dark brown, and the fingerboard, veneered with red tortoiseshell, is inlaid and edged with mother-of-pearl. The head, has been fitted with a watch-key mechanism. The upper neck and the sickle-shaped head have been joined to the base of the neck by means of a long diagonal graft. The clumsy placing of the capotasto holes, cut partly through the ornament of the neck and set off-centre (as they usually are to avoid interfering with the strings), suggests that they were not part of the original design.