Guitar
ALTERNATE NAME(S)
- Chitarriglia
Maker
Robert Mattingly
Date1977
Place MadeLong Beach, California, United States, North America
ModelBelchior Dias renaissance guitar
Serial No.200
SignedPrinted in brown on paper label with decorative border, sealed with brown wax on top side, the model, year, and serial number typed: R. L. Mattingly [horse-like animal enclosed in circle] / Maker of Stringed Instruments / 1738 E. 7th Street Long Beach Cal. U. S. A. / model BELCHIOR DIAZ / year 1977 no. 200Carved ivory plaque at lower end of fingerboard: BCHIOR / DIAS LXADescriptionThis guitar is made after the 1581 Belchior Dias instrument at the Royal College of Music, the earliest surviving guitar. It is built on the exact dimensions of the Diaz guitar, but with the back and sides of curled maple rather than rosewood. The back is made from vaulted staves, a characteristic also seen on an early vihuela in the Philharmonie de Paris Collection.
Stringing: four double courses with single top string
Top: two-piece spruce: fine grain, wood of top extends 16 mm over neck; bound in rosewood
Back: arched shape with 8 vaulted quarter-cut maple ribs with strong medium curl, interspersed with three-ply rosewood-light-hardwood-rosewood strips, the outer strips wider
Sides: two-piece quarter-cut maple ribs with strong medium curl inlaid along center with narrow ebony and maple purfling; sides divided at endpin with rosewood stripe surrounded on each side by light and dark hardwood strips, inlaid in center with two bands of four-ply light and dark hardwood strips, woven under and over one another
Head: rosewood veneered with rosewood; festooned outline; inlaid with three-ply light-dark-light maple and black-stained hardwood woven under and over and around peg holes; inlaid with three-ply light-dark-light maple and black-stained hardwood strip along center of back, integral with neck inlay
Neck: two-part rosewood inlaid with three-ply light-dark-light maple and black-stained hardwood strip along center, all the way through neck
Fingerboard: ebony inlaid with three-ply light-dark-light maple and black-stained hardwood strips, two straight along sides and 8 woven under and over; 10 tied gut frets; carved ivory plaque at lower end reading BCHIOR / DIAS LXA
Nut: bone
Bridge: rosewood tie bridge, ivory vine moustaches
Pegs: 10 cherry pegs with bone pins; top peg is a dummy with no string
End button: medium brown hardwood
Strap button: light brown hardwood below back button
Rose: none
Rosette: 26 strips of light and black-stained hardwood, flush with soundhole edge
Linings: spruce at joint between sides and top; gray and white cloth tape strips at joint between sides and back; same cloth tape behind inlay on sides
Neck block: two-part rosewood inlaid with three-ply light-dark-light maple and black-stained hardwood strip along center, integral with neck; Spanish foot longer at joint with back
End block: light hardwood with rounded edges
Top braces: three softwood braces with tapered ends set into top lining, two above and one below sound hole
Back braces: gray and white cloth tape strips glued along jointsDimensionsTotal guitar length: 785 mm
Body length: 367 mm
Upper bout width: 174 mm
Center bout width: 150 mm
Lower bout width: 201 mm
Rib height (including edging), heel: 54 mm
Rib height, waist: 68 mm
Rib height, end block: 65 mm
Neck length: 265 mm
Neck width at nut: 41 mm
Neck width at body: 49 mm
Head length: 150 mm
Head width, top: 45 mm
Head width, bottom: 51 mm
Sound hole diameter: 72 mm
Vibrating string length: 553 mmProvenanceNo known provenance.
Credit LineGift of Donna J. Curry, 2021
Object number15616
On View
Not on view
1920-1930 ca.
