T. Satoh had an ivory-backed baroque lute made by an Ottawa maker. Miles Dempster
On Monday, November 24, 2003, at 02:31 AM, Ed Durbrow wrote: > At 9:01 AM +0000 03/11/23, Sandi Harris & Stephen Barber wrote: >> The >> rosewood was an attempt to get near to the sound that ivory produces, >> using a hard material, which is of course always very >> beautifully-veined >> and figured, as well as sounding well > > I was just talking with a bagpipe player about ivory and it set me to > thinking. Has anyone made any modern reproductions of lutes with > ivory backs? I can't remember the context but I remember reading > somewhere about ivory backed theorbos being very loud. > > They cull elephants in South Africa and there is an abundance of > mammoth ivory, so there is legal ivory about. I suppose enough ivory > for a lute back would not be cheap no matter what the source. I was > wondering about the brittleness also. Lute ribs have quite a bend to > them. I wonder if mammoth ivory would be too brittle. > -- > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > >
