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English guittar
Alternate name:English guitar
Alternate name:Cittern
Maker: William Gibson
Date: 1782
Place Made:Dublin, Ireland, Europe
Model: Bell J-top shape
Serial No: none
SignedWritten in ink at the top of the back, the year underlined: Will Gibson Dublin / 1782
Markingsnone
DescriptionWilliam Gibson of Dublin was a music teacher, as well as an English guittar and harpsichord maker. His instruments feature some of the first metal worm-gear tuning mechanisms used on plucked stringed instruments.
Stringing: 10 strings, with four single bass courses and three upper double courses
Soundboard: two-piece spruce, fine grain
Back: one-piece slab cut burled maple
Ribs: four-piece quarter-cut maple with narrow, irregular curl
Head and neck: beech; head terminates in square veneered with tortoiseshell and bound with ivory; neck thinner on side for thumb; front of head concave
Binding and purfling: single black-painted line
Fingerboard: brown-stained beech veneered in center with ivory; undercut, decoratively scalloped fingerboard end; 15 brass bar frets, the last onle under top two courses; four capotasto positions
Nut: ivory
Bridge: rosewood
Pegs: two pairs of brass worm-gear tuners with ring-shaped brass heads with pins; bound in ivory and inset into head
Saddle: ivory
Endpins: nine ivory; two missing; there is one fewer pin than strings and presumably one pin had two string loops affixed to it
Rose: embossed brass with cherub surrounded by garland, ribbon, and recorders, violins, guitars, horns, and lutes
Rosette: three rings of black-painted imitation purfling, set in from soundhole edge; bound in raised ring of dark-varnished maple
Varnish: dark red brown
Linings: spruce, very narrow; twenty spruce triangular blocks on inside of ribs, perpendicular to plane of top and back, into which top and back braces are set
Neck block: integral neck and top block with thick spruce wedges on each side
End block: spruce; ends roughly tapered
Corner blocks: spruce
Top braces: five spruce ladder braces, tapered with triangular upper profile, one above soundhole, set into blocks glued to ribs; short lengths of spruce strips for reinforcement around edge of soundhole
Back braces: five spruce back braces, tapered with triangular upper profile; lowest five braces set into blocks glued to ribs, upper brace set into corner blocks
Other: narrow scraper marks on inside of back and ribs
Stringing: 10 strings, with four single bass courses and three upper double courses
Soundboard: two-piece spruce, fine grain
Back: one-piece slab cut burled maple
Ribs: four-piece quarter-cut maple with narrow, irregular curl
Head and neck: beech; head terminates in square veneered with tortoiseshell and bound with ivory; neck thinner on side for thumb; front of head concave
Binding and purfling: single black-painted line
Fingerboard: brown-stained beech veneered in center with ivory; undercut, decoratively scalloped fingerboard end; 15 brass bar frets, the last onle under top two courses; four capotasto positions
Nut: ivory
Bridge: rosewood
Pegs: two pairs of brass worm-gear tuners with ring-shaped brass heads with pins; bound in ivory and inset into head
Saddle: ivory
Endpins: nine ivory; two missing; there is one fewer pin than strings and presumably one pin had two string loops affixed to it
Rose: embossed brass with cherub surrounded by garland, ribbon, and recorders, violins, guitars, horns, and lutes
Rosette: three rings of black-painted imitation purfling, set in from soundhole edge; bound in raised ring of dark-varnished maple
Varnish: dark red brown
Linings: spruce, very narrow; twenty spruce triangular blocks on inside of ribs, perpendicular to plane of top and back, into which top and back braces are set
Neck block: integral neck and top block with thick spruce wedges on each side
End block: spruce; ends roughly tapered
Corner blocks: spruce
Top braces: five spruce ladder braces, tapered with triangular upper profile, one above soundhole, set into blocks glued to ribs; short lengths of spruce strips for reinforcement around edge of soundhole
Back braces: five spruce back braces, tapered with triangular upper profile; lowest five braces set into blocks glued to ribs, upper brace set into corner blocks
Other: narrow scraper marks on inside of back and ribs
DimensionsTotal guittar length: 810 mm
Back length (not including portion over neck heel): 361 mm
Back length (including portion over neck heel): 372 mm
Upper bout width: 62 mm
Waist width (at corners): 182 mm
Lower bout width: 312 mm
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 62 mm
Rib height, at waist: 73 mm
Rib height, at end block: 78 mm
Head and pegbox length: 212 mm
Head width, top: 36 mm
Pegbox width, bottom: 44 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 224 mm
Neck width, nut: 49 mm
Neck width, heel: 55 mm
Soundhole diameter: 77 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge): 462 mm
Back length (not including portion over neck heel): 361 mm
Back length (including portion over neck heel): 372 mm
Upper bout width: 62 mm
Waist width (at corners): 182 mm
Lower bout width: 312 mm
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 62 mm
Rib height, at waist: 73 mm
Rib height, at end block: 78 mm
Head and pegbox length: 212 mm
Head width, top: 36 mm
Pegbox width, bottom: 44 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 224 mm
Neck width, nut: 49 mm
Neck width, heel: 55 mm
Soundhole diameter: 77 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge): 462 mm
ProvenanceArne Larson obtained this English guittar from Ernest F. Lant, Sevenoaks, England, 1952. Arne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.
Terms
Credit Line: Arne B. Larson Collection, 1979
Not on view
Published ReferencesPanagiotis Poulopoulos, The Guittar in the British Isles 1750-1810, Ph.D. Dissertation (Edinburgh, The University of Edinbught, 2011) p. 286, 580.
Object number: 02627