Sycamore back and sides and pine soundboard, by Andreas Ernst Kram, German (Nuremberg), 1766.

"Flat back of a single piece of sycamore, and sides, narrowing towards the base, of the same. Belly of two pieces of pine, with intricate sunk rose of carved wood and parchment. The thick neck is of full width and carries a scalloped fingerboard with eighteen brass frets. The theorbo-like upper pegbox is surmounted with a carved lion's head with red-painted tongue, probably taken from another instrument. The main pegbox is for four double courses of wire, and the upper for nine single basses, these last running down to long brass hooks attached to the base of the body.' - Anthony Baines:Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), pp. 46-47.

This instrument was purchased by the Museum for £6 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.

The cittern is a wire-strung instrument, usually strummed with a plectrum. This example is fitted with extra strings in the bass, a practice that began in Italy in the late 16th century. Although the cittern dwindled in popularity throughout much of Europe during the eighteenth century, it was still used fairly widely in Germany and Switzerland. Andreas Ernst Kram was based in Nuremberg and his surviving instruments date from between 1760 and 1783.

215-1882