Brad McEwen wrote: >Hi: > > Gavin Davenport sent me a link to eBay where there was a Paul hathway > Renaissance cittern for sale. bidding has now ended on that one, but there > is an EG for sale there. It says mid 18th C English Guittar by james Earp. > However, it has a Portugues style headstock and fan tuners. > > Anyone have an idea about what this is, who th emaker was? Could it be > evidence that the fan tuners were in fact not Portugues in origin but > British? Or was it imported by James Erp, rather than made by him? > > In any event, could it be one of the earliest examples of fan tuners? > > Item No. 130079810828 > > >
It's not an 18th c guittar, it's a 19th century Portuguese guitar into which someone has put a label. Mahogany was not used for instrument bodies in the mid-18th c, rosewood was not used for fingerboards, brass string plates were not put on the end, fingerboards were not made like that - etc etc etc. It's simply a much later instrument and is a Portuguese guitar, many of which were imported into Britain in the late 19th century when there was a craze for playing them. David To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
