English guittar
Alternate name(s)
- English guitar
- Cittern
Date1776-1807 ca.
Place MadeEngland, Europe
ModelEgg shape
Serial No.none
SignedStamped on watch-key tuner mechanism: R WMarkingsnone
DescriptionSeveral stylistic features of this unsigned instrument are characteristic of those made for Longman & Broderip (or later firm Broderip & Wilkinson), including the egg-shaped body form and assymetrical interior X-bracing. The stamp "R W" on the tuner mechanism has been suggested by Panagiotis Poulopoulos as being the mark of Robert Wornum, the London violin maker, who may have been supplying the mechanisms to various English guittar manufacturers.
Stringing: five brass double courses
Soundboard: two-piece spruce, medium grain; grain angled toward center joint toward fingerboard
Back: two-piece quarter-cut maple with medium curl descending from center joint
Ribs: four-piece quarter-cut maple with medium curl
Head and neck: maple; head above machine tuners separate piece head terminates in square with missing veneer
Binding and purfling: black-painted imitation purfling only
Fingerboard: spruce veneered with ebony; undercut, decoratively scalloped fingerboard end; 12 brass bar frets; four capotasto positions
Nut: bone
Bridge: black-stained maple with flush bone saddle; not original
Tuner: single brass watch key mechanism
Saddle: bone; top wider than bottom
Endpins: 10 brass; one remaining
Rose: domed bone, ebony, and brown hardwood; twelve-pointed star with the points separated by maple filigree; each point of star set into notch around edge of soundhole; center part reinforced from back with paper
Rosette: two rings of black-painted imitation purfling, set in from soundhole edge
Varnish: medium orange brown
Linings: spruce
Neck block: spruce
End block: hardwood
Top braces: large spruce diagonal brace, from upper bass, to lower treble side, with two smaller finger braces below soundhole, one on each side of diagonal brace forming X; scratched marks on diagonal brace marking position of treble side finger brace; braces tapered with triangular profile
Back braces: four spruce back braces, tapered with triangular profile; center lower brace carved shorter; spruce back graft, divided into sections by back braces
DimensionsTotal guittar length: 722 mm
Back length (including portion over neck heel): 399 mm
Back length (not including portion over neck heel): 390 mm
Maximum back width: 305 mm
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 54 mm
Rib height, at waist: 79 mm
Rib height, at end block: 80 mm
Head and pegbox length: 155 mm
Head width, top: 30 mm
Pegbox width, bottom: 48 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 184 mm
Neck width, nut: 44 mm
Neck width, heel: 52 mm
Soundhole diameter: 74 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge): 424 mm
ProvenanceArne Larson obtained this English guittar from Ernest F. Lant, Sevenoaks, England, 1952. Arne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.
Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979
Object number02626
On View
Not on view
1760-1780 ca.
