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Guitar

Guitar

  • Place of origin:

    Hamburg (city), Germany (made)

  • Date:

    1693 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Tielke, Joachim, born 1641 - died 1719 (maker)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Ivory and tortoiseshell veneer, with engraved marquetry, gilt vellum rosette and carved ivory openwork head

  • Museum number:

    676-1872

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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This guitar was made in Hamburg in 1693 by Joachim Tielke (1641-1719), who built a large number of highly prestigious stringed instruments, of which fifteen guitars are known to survive today. The instruments were often elaborately decorated with ivory and tortoiseshell inlay similar to the floral motifs on this example.

From about 1650, the guitar became a highly fashionable instrument throughout Europe, and guitarists like Francesco Corbetta (ca. 1615-1681) and Robert de Visée (ca. 1650-1725) could make a good living at the courts of Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France respectively. These two composed melodious works at a time when much guitar music consisted of strumming sequences of chords, named after letters of the alphabet ( all’alfabeto), as opposed to notes and keys.

Physical description

'Vaulted back of five broad ribs of engraved marquetry of tortoiseshell, ivory and pewter in floral designs, cupids and classical scenes identified by short inscriptions; also with putti running through foliage in chase scenes. The sides are of marquetry, similarly decorated. The pine belly, with ladder-pattern purfling in ebony, ivory and pewter, is inlaid with floral marquetry in tortoiseshell, ivory and ebony in the star-shaped surround to the rose. The sunk rose is of vellum, of extreme complexity, partly gilded. The bridge is decorated with engraved mother-of-pearl and flanked by floral scrolls in tortoiseshell marquetry applied to the belly.

The neck is decorated on the back with tortoiseshell and ivory marquetry, and the extension of the belly wood is inlaid with leaves in engraved mother-of-pearl. The flush ebony fingerboard is bordered with ivory fillets, and is without frets. The head has openwork of carved ivory in a floral design with [a] putto, There are eleven pegs of carved and turned ivory, for six courses of strings, the first single, the rest double.'

Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-Keyboard Instruments (London, 1978), p. 57.

Place of Origin

Hamburg (city), Germany (made)

Date

1693 (made)

Artist/maker

Tielke, Joachim, born 1641 - died 1719 (maker)

Materials and Techniques

Ivory and tortoiseshell veneer, with engraved marquetry, gilt vellum rosette and carved ivory openwork head

Marks and inscriptions

Ioachim Tielke in Hamburg, An. 1693. Ioachim Tielke in Hamburg, 1693
C'Est trop tard It is too late
L'injustice de Midée The injustice of Midas
En jovant [jouant] In playing
Secours me nuit help harms me
La Musique d'Orphée Tire tout a soy The music of Orpheus attracts all things to himself
En riant me tue In laughing he kills me.

Dimensions

Length: 102 cm total, Length: 50 cm body, Width: 30 cm maximum, Depth: 13 cm maximum

Object history note

This instrument was bought for £53 from Messrs Goldschmidt of Frankfurt in September, 1872. It was first thought to be French, 17th century. It was "cleaned and repaired in detail in the Conservation Department" in 1963 (cf. Furniture & Woodwork Departmental Catalogues), when the signature and date would have been found. It was subsequently recorded in Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, H.M.S.O., 1968).

Descriptive line

Guitar of pine, decorated with marquetry of ivory and tortoishell, with ebony, pewter and mother-of-pearl; rose of vellum. Signed by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, 1693

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

London, Victoria & Albert Museum: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Part II, Anthony Baines: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), pp. 56 - 57.
Alexander Pilipczuk: "Joachim Tielke: Instrument-maker and Merchant of Hamburg. Recent Findings about his Education and Professional Life", (trans. Carlos O. Boerner), Galpin Society Journal LXI (April 2008), pp. 129-146.
Günther Hellwig:Joachim Tielke Ein Hamburger Lauten- und Violenmacher der Barockzeit., (Frankfurt-am-Main, Verlag Das Musikinstrument, 1980), pp.296-299.
Peter Thornton: Musical Instruments as Works of Art. (London, H.M.S.O., 1982), pp. 29-30.
Günther Hellwig: 'Joachim Tielke", The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. XVII (February, 1964), pp. 28-38.
Carl Engel: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum, (London, H.M.S.O., 1874), p. 254.
Friedemann and Barbara Hellwig, Joachim Tielke: Kunstvolle Musikinstrumente des Barock (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2011), pp.169-173. ISBN 978-3-422-07078-3

Exhibition History

Princely Treasures: European Masterpieces 1600-1800 from the V&A (National Museum of Korea (Seoul) 02/05/2011-28/08/2011)

Labels and date

GUITAR
German
By Joachim Tielke (1641-1719), Hamburg, 1693
Printed label Joachim Tielke,in Hamburg, An. 1693, decorated with tortoiseshell, ebony pewter and ivory floral motifs. Vellum rose. The instrument has six courses of strings, the first single and the rest double, five being the normal number.

Non-keyboard Catalogue No.: 12/1

The Guitar was used for solos and accompaniment, the former most often written in French Lute entablature and the latter in a Spanish system of chords, denoted by letters in the alphabet (extending beyond G). The strumming technique was known as Rasgueado and the plucking with finger tips punteado.
Composers of the Baroque Guitar included Gaspar Sanz, Robert de Visée and Francesco Corbetta.

Joachim Tielke settled in Hamburg in 1667, where he made fine instruments, of which fifteen guitars are known to survive.

676-1872 [pre September 2000]

Materials

Ivory; Vellum; Mother-of-pearl; Pine; Ebony; Pewter; Tortoise shell

Techniques

Carving; Veneering; Marquetry; Planing; Openwork; Sawing

Subjects depicted

Cupid; Apollo; Neptune; Jupiter; Mars; Juno; Orpheus; Europa; Marsyas; Midas

Categories

Musical instruments; Marquetry

Collection code

FWK

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Qr_O58931
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