Alto Viol, carved and planed sycamore, ebony and pine. made ca. 1650, England

"Belly of three pieces of pine with simiulated purfling in black paint. Back of two pieces of sycamore. Wooden side-linings. Probably built as a small tenor viol, the body has been cut down at the shoulders to a large treble, or 'alto size. Pegbox with a poorly carved head with long hair, and which black inlaid stringing. Modern tailpiece and fingerboard. Ivory nut (width 4.5 cm). Six ebony pegs." Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 5.

This formed part of the collection of Carl Engel (1919 - 1882), a leading musicologist who published the Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1874). Engel's collection was bought by the museum in 1882.
Bought from Carl Engel for £4

Viols were bowed instruments of differing pitches ranging from treble through alto and tenor to bass, and often played in an ensemble or 'consort of viols'. Musicians would play the smaller, higher-pitched viols (treble and alto) upright resting on their lap. This example is an alto viol, and it is thought to have been converted from a tenor. Consorts of viols were very popular in England from the 1520s until about 1660, when they were gradually superseded by the violin, an instrument much preferred by King Charles II.

152-1882