> Wolfgang Meyer from Bischofswerda has an identical instrument, signed > W. _. Gibson Dublin > 17_5 > The blanks stand for not decipherable letters. > The rosette is missing. > String length: 46,8 > Bridge: fixed to the soundboard by glue > It has five courses in doubles > Pegs: brass, like those in Amsterdam, no Preston Tuners >
This sounds like a very unusual instrument. Is the bridge original? Is the stringing arrangement original - or should it be four pairs and two singles? (The English guittars in the Edinburgh collection used to be described as being five course instruments.) I've got some old notes on 11/3 in the V&A that you mention below and I've just noted it as a large Irish instrument (but it has a carved head - literally a head, I think an African head) rather than the more usual square finial with a star. I'm sure I would have noted a glued on bridge! > He has seen two similar instruments in the V&A Museum, London, the first > one with the number 11/3 : English guitar by W. Gibson. Signed on back > in ink: Dublin; 1765 > The second one is anonymus. > One of them has a fixed bridge, too. > > sorry to be so late with this information, couldn't make it sooner. > > Martina > Baines' book has an picture of an instrument by Zumpe (1762) in Frankfurt and that seems to have glued bridge. But this is a lute-bodied instrument. The strings go over the bridge and attach at the tail. (There is no tail piece as on the Toggenburger Halszither). ----------------------------------------- Email sent from www.ntlworld.com virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software visit www.ntlworld.com/security for more information To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
