Pine body, with quill plectrum, German, 1830-50

'Belly, back and sides of pine, the plates overhanging the sides. A crudely carved rose. The sides are of even depth and at each side by the neck is applied a halved turned wooden rod, distantly recalling the halved balusters of earlier citterns. Offset neck surmounted by a fingerboard with twelve brass frets not all equally spaced. Pegbox with eight pegs for four double courses of wire, the first three steel, the fourth brass; the numbers of strings are inscribed inside the pegbox, which ends in a lobed, shield-shaped finial.' - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments.(London, 1998), p. 47.

This instrument was purchased by the Museum for £1 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.

The cittern is a wire-strung instrument, strummed or plucked with a plectrum or quill, like the one that was acquired at the same time as this instrument, which is a rare survival. This version of the cittern was used as a folk instrument in Germany, especially Thuringia and the Hartz mountains, where it was known as a Waldzither.

217-1882