Chitarrone, made by Andrea Taus, Siena, 1621

"Body of thirty-nine ribs of yew with a lighter wood stringing between. It is strengthened inside with strips of paper bearing manuscript inscriptions in Italiam apparently in an eighteenth or noneteenth century hand. Pine belly, caved with a rose. The neck has a rosewood fingerboard, but the instrument has never been played with this. A remaining ebony 'beard' shows that the orignal fingerboard was of ebony. The back of the neck has a lower section, probably original, with a kidney pattern inlaid in dark wood. The back of the long head has a crude imitation of this pattern, which also occurs on the front. This long head, which ocntains both pegboxes is not original. The pegs are moden, the main pegbox being for six double courses and the upper for six single strings. ... According to Engel, the instrument was orginally a lute, and the present fingerboard is pobably a fake. " (Baines, Anthony. Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-Keyboard instruments. London, 1998, p. 35.)

This instrument was bought by the South Kensington Musem in 1859 for £2. Its neck was probably replaced not long before the museum purchased it, and the paper with 18th and 19th century handwriting glued to strengthen the ribs at about that time. Its earlier provenances remain unknown.

This instrument is thought to have originally been a lute, subsequently altered to resemble a chitarrone, an instrument with an impressively long and decorative neck. It was probably never played with its current neck but used to hang on a wall or serve as an artist's prop. This chitarrone is the only known signed and dated instrument (1621) of Andrea Taus, an otherwise unknown maker most likely from Germany, the country from where most luthiers working in Italy at this time originated.

5989-1859