Bell Cittern, sycamore back, sides and neck, pine belly, A.Bachmann, German (Berlin), 1769.

'Slightly arched back of a single piece of sycamore, narrowing towards the base of the body, of the same wood. Belly of two pieces of pine, slightly arched. The rose is modern. The shallow neck is of full width and carries an ebony fingerboard with five gut frets, probably a replacement of an earlier fingerboard with fixed frets. The pegbox is for eight pegs and has a square finial faced with tortoiseshell. There are eight wire strings, running to eight ivory hitch studs at the base of the body, the bridge being grooved for two single course and three double, but the nut has fourteen evenly spaced grooves' - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), p. 46.

This instrument was purchased by the Museum for £3 in 1882. It had been part of the collections of Carl Engel (1818-1882), an eminent musicologist from Hanover, who published the Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum in 1874. The South Kensington Museum has been known as the Victoria & Albert Museum since 1899.

'Bachmann had a good reputation as a maker, though this instrument has considerably deteriorated in condition and has been altered. Engel was of the opinion that Bachman was the repairer, not the maker, of this cittern: the date 1769, would be a late one for the building of a bell cittern' - Anthony Baines:Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), p. 46.

The bell cittern, also known as the cithrinchen, was a popular folk instrument in Northern Europe from about 1650 until 1700. It was often fitted with five courses of double strings, but the two bass courses on this example are single strings. It was either strummed with a plectrum or played with fingers. Anton Bachmann (1716 - 1800) was one of Berlin's leading makers and repairers of stringed instruments during the eighteenth century. The bell cittern had fallen out of fashion by 1769, the date on the instrument, and so Bachmann may possibly have been the repairer rather than the maker.

201-1882