There seems to be a bit of interest in this, so I'll elaborate...
The Colson in the "musictreasures" photo has a very gently rounded curve from the tail end to the sides. Typically the large "Pajot" style instruments turn a tighter corner, and this is what I remembered of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' Colson. I looked back into my records, however, and the photos I have show a curve that's sort of in-between... not as round as the Vintage Instruments Colson, but closer to that shape than the Pajot profile.
The purfling style is exactly the same; thin black-white-black inside (though really I can't tell based on the web photo if the V.I. Colson has this), and "trapezoidal" black and white chips at the edge, with nothing between them. The chips "lean" the same way continuously around the perimeter, rather than being mirrored on each side; if this isn't clear, the difference can be clearly seen by comparing the Colson and Pajot luteback pics at the link below.
In my study of the MFA instrument, I noted that apparently only four strings were ever used on this hurdy-gurdy. Although the mouche bridge is missing, there is obviously no wear in the string anchor or over the edge of the purfling where a mouche would have been mounted. The same goes for the "higher" or "inner" of the bourdons; no wear in the string anchor or the soundboard edge and no slot in the top of the bourdon bridge. Plus, in each side of the peghead there is only one hole for leading the strings from the ears to the two pegs closest to the carved head. The evidence of four strings is consistent between the body, remaining bridge, and keybox. There are two melody strings, and two tangents on each key, though I didn't note at the time whether it looked like there were always two tangents on each key.
~ Matt At 12:42 AM 2/21/2007 -0800, you wrote:
--- Seth Hamon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > this site has the pics... > http://home.comcast.net/~musictreasures/antmisc.htm > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Unfortunately the photos are unavailable on this one. The Mirecourt > builders > (the Colsons and Thouvenels) built very few lutebacks, and I'm always > skeptical when I see one advertised. There was one around a few years > ago > where it was obviously the keybox and bridges and tailpiece from a > guitar-shaped Colson that had been obviously grafted onto a newer > luteback > body. > > We had the honor of restoring a genuine luteback Colson several years > ago. > It's a beauty. It went to a player in the Seattle area. >
