Vielle à roue en luth

ALTERNATE NAME(S)

Hurdy-gurdy

Date1800 ca.

Place MadeBourg, Bresse, France, Europe

SignedBranded on each side of keybox, with asterisks at each corner: GUIENET / A BOURGDescriptionThe vielle à roue, or hurdy-gurdy, employs a rosined wheel to sound the strings. The combination of melody and drone strings creates an effect much like a bagpipe. This example, likely make in the late 18th or early 19th century, was produced in France, where such instruments were popular. The instrument is branded Guienet, but no biographical information about them is known.

Lute-shaped body
Stringing: two melody strings; four drone strings; four metal sympathetic strings
Soundboard: dark hardwood, probably walnut; arched; alternating angled mother-of-pearl and ebony blocks divided by four-ply bone and ebony strips; ebony and maple strips along inside edge
Soundholes: two C-shaped soundholes in lower bouts
Bowl: 9 alternating staves of walnut and slightly curled maple; staves pinned to structure with wood pins
Clasp: slightly curled maple; festooned lower edge that is slightly rounded
Crank: iron; turned ivory handle; mounted on oval ebony plate which has a decoratively cut foliate and ribbon silver-plated brass applique
Head: maple; decoratively carved young male head and crosshatched incised sides
Keybox: maple with incised line and punched asterisk decoration
Keybox cover: maple veneered with ebony, with bone stringing around perimeter; decoratively cut mother-of-pearl closure
Keys: 10 maple chromatic keys with ebony heads and 13 ebony diatonic keys
Wheel: light hardwood, possibly linden
Wheel cover: missing; decoratively profiled bone mounts
Bridge and string supports: maple
Tailpiece: maple veneered with ebony, with bone stringing around perimeter; bone peg with ivory pin mounted through face and coming in contact with top
Pegs: six rosewood with bone pins; ebony block mounted to treble side of body near head with four brass screws for attaching metal sympathetic strings
Strap buttons: two decoratively turned bone, one on each side of lower edgeDimensionsTotal length: 549 mm
Body length: 410 mm
Maximum body width: 241 mm
Body depth: 108 mm
Length of keybox: 250 mm
Melody string length: 267 mm
Drone string length: 300 mmProvenanceNo known provenance.Published References"Musical Country Cousins. A Look at some rare folk instruments." _Selmer Bandwagon, no. 58 (1969), p.13

Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979

Object number01263

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