Theorbo made up from an Italian lute body dating from about 1650.

"Body of thirty-three shaded ribs. The belly is later; it is surrounded with a thick black moulding and has a small fretted and gilt rose somewhat similar in pattern to the roses of English Guitars. The bridge is centred far over to the bass side and 16 cm from the base of the body. There are no 'beards' at the end of the fingerboard. The neck appears to be older than the two peg boxes. The fingerboard has nine ivory frets. The lower pegbox is for one single course and six double. The upper is for five double courses, and has a square finial like that of an English guitar, with a tortoiseshell slip". Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), p. 33.

Given to the Museum by Miss Evelyn Carter

This object was given to the Museum in 1935 by Miss Evelyn Carter

Anthony Baines:Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 33: "The instrument is probably a post-1750 conversion of quite a good seventeenth-century lute, perhaps Italian."

The theorbo or theorbo-lute was a lute with unstopped strings added in the bass. By the early 1700s, theorbo-lutes were the main form of lute, tuned so as to provide additional bass notes and also to make it easier to play trills, as the music of the day demanded. This example was probably converted into a theorbo from a 17th century Italian lute after about 1750.

CIRC.324-1935