Hello Stuart, Well, you asked for a punt and here's mine: I suggest it is a 6 course mandora (gallichon) converted to a guitar by shortening the neck (from, say 68/69cm) to bring the string length in line with early 19th century guitars (ie 62/63cm). We certainly know that many'baroque, guitars were converted and I am aware of at least 21 other mid-18th century mandoras converted to guitars (tho' this is the first Hamburg example I've seen). But I'd like data on sizes to be certain
Martyn .--- On Wed, 5/1/11, Stuart Walsh <[email protected]> wrote: From: Stuart Walsh <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [LUTE] RV93 - OT... what's this? To: "Martyn Hodgson" <[email protected]> Cc: "Lute Dmth" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, 5 January, 2011, 22:30 On 04/01/2011 09:39, Martyn Hodgson wrote: > > > It is much more likely that the instrument required is the 18th > century Italian 'leuto'...... The general size of these instruments can be deduced > from contemporary iconography and there are good early/mid 18th century > Italian paintings showing lutes being played (often just 7 course > instruments - perhaps even old lutes?) suggesting string lengths close > to old G lutes (ie generally low/mid 60s cm). A number of these > instruments survive in modern collections and often in a pristine state > by makers such as Radice.... > There are some unusual/untypical 18thC 'lutes' in collections and museums...lutes with with far fewer courses than the German 13-course brutes. Perhaps there are three possibilities: 1)mandora/gallichon 2) leuto 3) fake? How about this in the National Library of Scotland? It's from Hamburg, 1758, so it can't be a leuto. But the neck is presumably too short for a mandora? The museum describes it, improbably, as a six-course mandola (a bass mandolin!). [1]http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/note.jpg Unfortunately, only the back of the instrument is visible: [2]http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/1.jpg [3]http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/2.jpg [4]http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/3.jpg Stuart -- References 1. http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/note.jpg 2. http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/1.jpg 3. http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/2.jpg 4. http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/leuto/3.jpg To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
