Archlute
Alternate name(s)
- Lute
Maker
Joachim Tielke
Date1707
Place MadeHamburg, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted on paper label, the year written in black ink: JOACHIM TIELKE / in hamburg / Ani707Written in pencil on underside of soundboard: J. C. Kaltschmidt in Weimar / 1775.
DescriptionJoachim Tielke offered sumptuously decorated lutes, citterns, guitars, violin, and viol family instruments to wealthy clients in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This archlute is made from exotic materials for the period, rosewood, ivory, and tortoiseshell. The current top and pegheads are from a later period.
Stringing: two single and six double courses over fingerboard; five double courses to second head
Soundboard: two-piece quarter-cut spruce: wide grain; joint is on treble third of top; later
Bowl: 9 rosewood staves, divided by ivory strips
Clasp: two-piece rosewood divided by ivory strip; later bone, festooned trim at joint with top
Head: two medium brown hardwood heads, later, painted black and veneered with ebony, ivory, and tortoiseshell; marquetry veneer on back of lower head, removed from an earlier head, has engraved, black-ink-filled ivory figures, foliate decoration, and outdoor scenes
Neck: veneered with engraved, black-ink-filled ivory and tortoiseshell marquetry decoration comprised of figures, foliate decoration, and outdoor scenes; shortened
Binding: ebony and ivory; later
Fingerboard: tortoiseshell with ivory border
Nuts: ebony
Bridge: brown-stained maple with ivory ends and ivory and tortoiseshell upper side; possibly original, affixed to later top
Tuners: 24 ebony friction pegs with bone pins
Rose: dark brown hardwood
Rosette: single black hardwood strip
Lacquer: clear
Bowl lining: linen strips glued at joints between ribs
Technical drawing available for purchase.
DimensionsTotal archlute length: 1295 mm
Top length: 546 mm
Maximum body width: 308 mm
Maximum bowl height: 141 mm
Head length: 439 mm
Head width, top: 20 mm
Head width, bottom: 77 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 303 mm
Neck width, nut: 76 mm
Neck width, heel: 104 mm
Soundhole diameter: 88 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 741 mm and 1039 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1986 from Bernhard von Hünerbein, Cologne, Germany.
Published ReferencesGünther Hellwig, Joachim Tielke (Frankfurt: Verlag das Musikinstrument, 1980).
Technical Drawings
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1986
Object number04003
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