Round Backed Cittern
1757 (Made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This instrument is a late version of the cittern. It is fitted with metal frets and strings, and built with a lute-shaped back. The musician would have played it with fingers or with a quill. This example has holes in the neck into which one could screw a 'capo', a bar-like device that made it easier to play in different keys. This instrument may have been made in France, where it would have been known as a pandore.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | planed sycamore and ebony ribs, planed pine belly, inlaid ebony, ivory and mother-of-pearl star pattern. |
| Brief description | Round backed cittern, sycamore ribs, French (or possibly English?), 1757. |
| Physical description | 'Body of twenty-one ribs of sycamore and black (ebony?) intervening stringing. Six ebony hitch studs at the base. Belly with open soundhole. The neck resembles that of 11/16 [round-back cittern, Museum No.: 202-1882] but the fingerboard has seventeen frets and four capotasto holes. The marquetry star-pattern in ebony, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and a brown wood.' - Anthony Baines:Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), pp. 55. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Marks and inscriptions | 1757 (Written in ink on the back.) |
| Object history | This instrument was purchased by the Museum for £1 - 10 - 0 (£1.50) in 1882. It had been part of the collections of Carl Engel (1818-1882), an eminent musicologist from Hanover, who published the Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum in 1874. The South Kensington Museum has been known as the Victoria & Albert Museum since 1899. |
| Production | "The contour of the body suggests a copy of the similar, though superior, round-backed citterns by Deleplanque of Lille, dated 1766, etc., while the presence of seventeen frets also suggests French work" - Anthony Baines:Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments.(London, 1998), pp. 55. |
| Summary | This instrument is a late version of the cittern. It is fitted with metal frets and strings, and built with a lute-shaped back. The musician would have played it with fingers or with a quill. This example has holes in the neck into which one could screw a 'capo', a bar-like device that made it easier to play in different keys. This instrument may have been made in France, where it would have been known as a pandore. |
| Bibliographic reference | Anthony Baines:Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), pp. 55. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 197-1882 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSON
