Arch-cittern, sycamore back and sides, pine soundboard, Harley, London, English, 1810-20.

"On the gilt scroll painted round the soundhole, the words: Harley. London . Back and sides of sycamore. The belly is bordered by a Greek fret band in gold. The soundhole is open, and appears to have been enlarged , since the surrounding gilt scroll has been cut into. The neck and pegboxes are painted black. The ebony fingerboard (length 25 cm) has twelve ivory frets, and the nuts are of ivory, the upper nut being slanted. The main pegbox carries six overspun metal strings on single courses, and the upper carries four. The strings are attached to a crude massive bridge pierced with ten equidistant holes." - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), p. 54.

This instrument was bequeathed to this museum in 1917 by Henry Saint-George.

Citterns were wire-strung instruments, usually plucked or strummed with a plectrum. Versions with extra unstopped strings added in the bass were known as 'arch-citterns'. Surviving French arch-citterns of the 1780s were more sophisticated than their Swiss or German counterparts, and this example follows the French pattern. It was built by a Mr Harley of Wych Street, London, who also made harp-guitars and other fashionable variants between about 1800 and 1820.

W.36-1917