Dear lute makers and all, I recently got back from a trip to the east =
coast where I was kindly given permission to draw a couple of lutes. =
One was the Andreas Berr in Boston , but more importantly the Andreas =
Jauck at Yale. Below I describe the Jauck and have a few observations. =
I'm wondering if anyone has seen other Jauck's=20
1) Budapest National Museum of Hungary No. 1951.45
2) Brussels Musee Instrumental No. 251
3) Vienna KHM No. GDM 61
and if the conversion sounds similar, or just any thoughts on this.
The body of the Jauck is a 37-ribbed yew wood lute. Andy Rutherford =
says in his notes He thinks it to be a 1600 to 1640 Italian lute . =
However the curator told me Ray Nurse thinks it is French only because =
of the style of the points which are very strange, as they extended way =
down into the body. I think it is Italian as I haven't heard of any =
leading French lute makers from this period,( I'm not a historian and =
actually have little to go on about that) and most likely the points =
were done at the time of the conversion. The last two ribs were planned =
down almost to the next rib in the conversion. The top had a pronounced =
arch across the grain, which was most defiantly a design of Jauck, as it =
doesn't appear to be from humidity as the ribs were planed to take the =
arch. The end clasp was almost non-existent, and my feeling is that some =
of it was planned off in the conversion. There was also a large bulge =
where the ribs curve into the end clasp, and I really wonder how this =
could happen? I saw this to a lot lesser degree in the Berr lute that I =
drew at the Boston museum of fine arts, Also this appears in the plans =
by Lunberg of the Frei. If anyone has any thoughts about this I would =
love to hear them. I don't know but speculate that perhaps during the =
conversion the area of the end clasp was pulled in therefore creating =
the bulge? It seems that all conversion lutes that I've seen personally =
and of plans I've seen have this problem bulge. And again I'm not an =
expert in this, but at the same time it seems crazy that the original =
maker would have done this and also seems unlikely that humidity could =
cause this either.=20
I'm not sure how to proceed to draw up the plans, as I have no =
interest to copy exactly the body with so many alterations from the =
original. I am working with a friend of mine from a national lab to =
recreate the original body shape on a computer, and as I said, the ribs =
were planned down and that would change the shape of the top as well. =
The bridge seemed to be original, as I could see no evidence of it being =
moved, but for that matter the whole top with the bridge could have been =
used from an existing lute? I didn't bother to copy much of bridge as a =
new piece was screwed on to the top of the original bridge using three =
small screws and was unusually high, and not very appealing. I am =
thinking of drawing up both plans one of the original and one of a =
working model with a computer recreation of the original. If anyone has =
any thoughts about this I would love to hear from you. A few photos are =
included.
Thanks,
=20
=20
Michael Thames
Luthier
www.ThamesClassicalGuitars.com
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