Cittern
Date1620 ca.
Place MadeEngland, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedWritten in black ink on paper label: Petrus Raitta / Anno Domini [15]79]Markingsnone
DescriptionThis small, early English cittern is of the type used in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. It features alternating strips of maple and plum wood on the back and a howling dog for the head of the pegbox, a variation on the traditional Renaissance grotesque figures. Dendrochronology undertaken by Peter Ratcliff has revealed a last ring of 1610, suggesting a date of manufacture around 1620.
Stringing: four pairs of metal strings
Soundboard: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: very fine grain, broadening toward the flanks; separate spruce pieces over tops of scrolls near neck heel
Back: seven-piece alternating strips of quarter-cut maple with narrow curl (three pieces) and plum (microscopically identified by John Koster 6/7/07) cut off-the-quarter (four pieces); extends over neck heel with hardwood strip reinforcement between back and neck heel
Ribs: two-piece pear or apple (microscopically identified by John Koster, 6/6/07): plain; ribs cover outer edges of back in upper bouts but not lower bouts
Head: hardwood with pegbox terminating in dog’s head with extended tongue; nose made from separate piece of hardwood; front edges of pegbox walls carved with geometric surface pattern; sides and back of pegbox impressed with hollow, circular stippling tool; raised circles at peg holes; raised foliate carving on peghead back, with impressed circles and points; burned stars on three leaf clover on each side of pegbox near saddle
Neck: pear (microscopically identified by John Koster 6/7/07); integral with heel; filled hole on treble side near base of pegbox
Heel: heel comes to point; heel carved with raised foliate patterns, background stippled with sharp, pointed tool; burned star on bass side tendril; separate, decoratively carved maple scrolls glued to ribs on each side of neck heel with four burned stars on each scroll, the bases of each scroll impressed with three small circles each
Edging: none
Purfling: double strips of light-dark-light purfling on top; double strips of light-dark-light purfling around outline of dark wood staves of back
Fretboard: pear; 17 brass frets; medium brown hardwood shims behind 1st, 4th, 6th, ; two light-dark-light hardwood purfling strips inlaid along each side; binding on treble side of fretboard, continues into carving of pegbox; thick fretboard continues onto top; decoratively cut edge on bass side over top
Nut: rosewood with brass wire saddle
Bridge: stained maple; built for a slightly arched top
Pegs: eight brown-stained maple with large collars and integral pins
String holder: plum comb set into lower rib, following contour of top
Rose: round soundhole with carved wood and gilded parchment geometric rose; relief-carved rose at center; surrounded by two strips of dark-light-dark purfling, the inner strip not set in from edge
Varnish: dark red with slight cracquelure, later; probably French-polished
Linings: kerfed dark brown hardwood
Neck block: possibly spruce, the fine grain running parallel to plane of top and back; flat outer surface
End block: maple or birch
Top bracing: two spruce lateral braces with chamfered edges and concave lower edges, one through upper half of soundhole, and one at widest point of body; small spruce brace under center of rose; wood cleats on inside of top at center
Back bracing: two spruce lateral braces with chamfered edges and concave lower edges, one below soundhole, placed lower on body than corresponding top brace, one at widest point of body, slightly higher than corresponding top brace, bass end of this bracket set into spruce block
Other: metal pin between lower ribs below string holder, on lower treble side of rib at lower block; on back at lower treble edge, and at center of back lower edge; maple pin through back into lower block on bass side of center, maple pin through top lower treble edge, and two maple pins through crack in lower treble rib
Technical drawing available for purchase.
DimensionsTotal Cittern length: 603 mm (without comb); 617 mm (with comb)
Back length, including heel: 283 mm
Upper bout width (narrowest point): 51 mm
Lower bout width (widest point): 190 mm
Rib height (not including top edge), at heel: 41 mm
Rib height (including top edge), at heel: 43 mm
Rib height (not including top edge), at waist: 28 mm
Rib height (including top edge), at waist: 30 mm
Rib height (not including top edge), at comb: 20 mm
Rib height (including top edge), at comb: 22 mm
Head length: 168 mm
Pegbox width, top: 20 mm
Pegbox width, bottom: 38 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 145 mm
Neck width, nut: 38 mm
Neck width, heel: 41 mm
Rose diameter: 62 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 350 mm
Vibrating string length 1st fret to bridge: 328 mm
Vibrating string length 2nd fret to bridge: 314 mm
Vibrating string length 3rd fret to bridge: 295 mm
Vibrating string length 4th fret to bridge: 281 mm
Vibrating string length 5th fret to bridge: 264 mm
Vibrating string length 6th fret to bridge: 249 mm
Vibrating string length 7th fret to bridge: 237 mm
Vibrating string length 8th fret to bridge: 224 mm
Vibrating string length 9th fret to bridge: 212 mm
Vibrating string length 10th fret to bridge: 200 mm
Vibrating string length 11th fret to bridge: 189 mm
Vibrating string length 12th fret to bridge: 179 mm
Vibrating string length 13th fret to bridge: 168 mm
Vibrating string length 14th fret to bridge: 160 mm
Vibrating string length 15th fret to bridge: 152 mm
Vibrating string length 16th fret to bridge: 145 mm
Vibrating string length 17th fret to bridge: 137 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 2007 from Christie's Auction House, New York, New York. Previously owned by Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, Vienna, Austria.
Published ReferencesFine Musical Instruments, Monday 2 April 2007 (New York: Christie's), Lot 34, p. 11.
Associated Press, "Stradivari Violin Goes for $2.7M," The New York Times (April 3, 2007).
Jay Kirschemann, “Rare Ancestor of Guitar Finds its Way to S. D.,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader (April 5, 2007), p. 1A, 5A.
Jennifer Muhmel, “Museum Gets Only Known English Cittern,” The Volante (April 25, 2007), p. A1, A6.
Arian Sheets, "Another 16th-century Treasure . . . A Unique Cittern From Shakespeare's England," National Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. 35, No. 1 (February 2008), p. 1.
David Dolata, Meantone Temperaments on Lute and Viols. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016), p. 37.
Peter Forrester, "Cittern Belly Outlines," Communication 2073, FoMRHI Quarterly, Bulletin 138 (August 2017): 5-12.
Technical Drawings
Credit LineArne B. and Jeanne F. Larson Fund, 2007
Object number13500
On View
On view
