German?, 1700-1800

'A small body with steeply sloped shoulders. The belly and the back overlap the sides as on a violin. Belly, with f-holes, has simulated purfling [bordering] in black paint and has been rather coarsely treated at some time so that the grain of the pie shows up markedly. The high-arched back of one piece of sycamore, with an old repair. The small pegbox with a simple scroll and four boxwood pegs.'

Taken from Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 18.

This instrument formed part of the collections of Carl Engel and was valued at £4, when acquired by the South Kensington Museum in 1882.

Carl Engel, the previous owner, thought this instrument was 17th-century Italian, whereas Anthony Baines desicribed it as 'Eighteenth century' without assigning it to any particular country. A number of Viols and viole d'amore with steeply sloping 'shoulders' were made in Germany and Austria in the first half of the century, and this example may have been made there as well.

Violetta piccola was a term used to describe both a small version of the violin and the five-stringed descant viol. This example has only four strings, like the violin, but steeply sloping 'shoulders' like certain 17th- and early 18th-century viols and viole d'amore. It has a broader body than a kit (see Museum no. 166-1872), but like that instrument it may have been used to help teach dancing. Or it may have served as the highest-pitched member of a consort (or ensemble) of viols.

165-1882