I think David was kidding about the oboe (hence the :) sign). The objects Dan describes do not resemble any oboe da caccia I've seen. The goldish-colored "oboe" part looks like a pestle, and the similarly-colored round object is more than likely the mortar or similar dish. It can't be the bell of a wind instrument (the oboe da caccia is so named because it has a flaring bell resembling a horn, or "corno da caccia"), because it has a bottom, which would of course stop the air flow completely and cause the oboist to explode.
In any event, Linard apparently died around 1645, before the Hotteterres developed the oboe, and probably 50 or 60 years before the oboe da caccia. David may have been noticing that the parsnip at the lower right edge of the table appears to have finger holes like a wind instrument. But of course the parsnip was a single-reed instrument. On Feb 15, 2010, at 10:55 AM, Daniel Winheld wrote: > It's down at the bottom, next to what appears to be a plate on edge; > dangerously close to the parsnips. It appears that the bell is of a > different wood than the body; and on the whole it somewhat resembles > an extraordinary oboe played extraordinarily well by Gonzalo X. Ruiz > a few weeks ago- perhaps explaining David's interest :) -he was > part of the fine continuo support at one of his "Voices of Music" > concert. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
