> Actually, thought, what I was trying to get at is this; who was buying > those hundreds of lutes under construction, or at least with parts > made/bought, in the death inventories, and how much were they paying > for them? Granted, this has little or nothing to do with what's going > on now, but I'm just curious.
not clear he had or needed a large market to justify that inventory. Wood for musical instruments is not always available, even today. When you can find stuff you like you buy it in whatever depth you can afford. When you have good help you keep it busy as best you can afford to. The help makes parts, the master does the finicky bits and develops new models. Unlike today, the work is seasonal. Some seasons have excellent daylight illumination in particular parts of the day, so that is when you carve roses, heads (for the gambas and citterns you also make), and pegboxes. Hide glue work needs warmth, the glue itself is kept at 140 F in a double boiler, it helps if the shop is at 80F, and the work should be warmed above that. Not hard in a modern shop, but a challenge in 16c europe except in summer. > Another thing: IMO, an artist lute builder doesn't have hundreds of > bellies, worked and unworked, lying around (in Venetian boxes!) when he > dies, even if he's been sick and not working for awhile. Sounds like a > factory to me! That artist needs some income to survive, which is what the 'factory' provided. Small businesses made many of the pianos built in the US during the 1920's, most of the elements were made in batches in small shops which contracted with the 'maker'. Sides from this shop, backs from that, lids and front panels from another, harp and frames for the action from one foundary, brass pedals from another. Many of those small shops were on the same street or in the same district of one town as shipping costs were always an issue. the renaissance was no stranger to specialized production, turned spindles for chair parts were made by a bodger, a man who carried his lathe in parts on his back into the woods where he had the right to glean; he setup the spring pole lathe under some conveniant sapling and did his turnery right where the green wood came from, bringing back the parts strapped to his frame pack when it was full. Someone else assembled the chairs, maybe his brother or a cousin. BTW, I suspect it would have been pigeon or small birde on a spit for dinner bought out rather than chicken, chickens were kept for the eggs they layed, it was when they got too old to be good layers that the cook got inventive to make the old foul edible. -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
