Kit
1780 - 1820 (Made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Kits were small, narrow versions of violins, often played by dancing masters before demonstrating a particular step. One recorded virtuoso of this instrument was Francis Pemberton who flourished in England in the 1760s and was "able to play solos on [the kit], exhibiting all the graces and elegancies of the violin". This instrument is carved in a vernacular style and may have been used as a folk instrument, like the one that features in the painting, Peasant Children (attr. Antoine le Nain) in the Glasgow Art Gallery.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Carved pearwood (?) body, planed pine belly, mother-of-pearl veneered tailpeice inlaid wih carved ivory mask. |
| Brief description | Pearwood (?) body, French, 1780 - 1820 |
| Physical description | "Narrow model, with body of perhaps pearwood, shaped to five faces and carved with floral patterns in low relief. Belly of pine with f-holes with added tails. The neck is inlaid with two flashes of darkened wood and the pegbox has a crudely carved head of an old woman wearing a cap. Tailpiece veneered with mother-of-pearl inlaid with a bearded mask carved in ivory. A fleur-de-lis is engraved on a light-coloured wooden panel set in the dark fingerboard" - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), pp. 21-22. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | fleur-de-lys (engraved on the fingerboard) |
| Object history | This instrument was bought by this museum for £5 - 10 - 0 (£5.50) in 1890. |
| Production | Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 22. 'A crudely made and very worn instrument ...with carving so debased that it gives no clue to the date, which might even be 19th century.' |
| Summary | Kits were small, narrow versions of violins, often played by dancing masters before demonstrating a particular step. One recorded virtuoso of this instrument was Francis Pemberton who flourished in England in the 1760s and was "able to play solos on [the kit], exhibiting all the graces and elegancies of the violin". This instrument is carved in a vernacular style and may have been used as a folk instrument, like the one that features in the painting, Peasant Children (attr. Antoine le Nain) in the Glasgow Art Gallery. |
| Bibliographic reference | Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments.(London, 1998), pp. 21-22. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 647-1890 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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