Images(20)

Kit

Alternate name(s)

Pochette
Dancing masters' fiddle

Maker Thomas Perry

Date1770-1781 ca.

Place MadeDublin, Ireland, Europe

Modelnone

Serial No.none

SignedBranded at top of the back of the body: PERRY / DUBLIN
Markingsnone
DescriptionThis unusual oval-shaped kit, or dancing master's fiddle, bears the brand of the Perry family of Dublin. Instruments such as these were easily transported for the instruction of dance, a required social skill for middle and upper class Europeans of the period.

Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain; not inset at neck heel
Back: one-piece, quarter-cut maple: narrow, irregular, horizontal curl
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: narrow curl angled to right; one-piece
Head and neck: maple: plain; pegbox terminates without scroll; hole drilled in upper end of pegbox for suspending via fiber thread or rope
Purfling: double painted lines
Varnish: light orange
Fingerboard: ebony; wedge shaped; channeled under neck position; ebony wedges on each side at joint with neck; relatively flat profile
Nut: ebony
Tailpiece: ebony; tailgut passes through holes drilled in face; bevelled lower end
Tailgut: plain gut
Pegs: four boxwood; undercut heads; short stems
Saddle: ebony; low profile; set into top; finished with same varnish as body
Endpin: ebony
F-holes: strongly curved wings; flared, angled stems
Linings: spruce
Top block: spruce; iron screw with flat slot-head through top block into neck heel
Bottom block: spruce

DimensionsTotal kit length: 428 mm
Back length: 232 mm
Upper bout width: 72 mm
Lower bout width: 85 mm
Rib height: 19-20 mm
Stop length: 149 mm
Vibrating string length: 280 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 129 mm

ProvenancePurchased in 1980 from Wurlitzer-Bruck, New York, New York.

Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1980

Object number02674

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