Images(17)

Discant geig

Alternate name(s)

Pochette
Kit
Dancing master's fiddle
Discant geige

Maker Mathias Worle

Date1691

Place MadeAugsburg, Germany, Europe

Serial No.none

SignedWritten in black ink on paper label (old German script): MathiasWorlein / AugspurgAo·i·6·9i·

DescriptionThis is a small dancing master's fiddle that is similar to instruments appearing in sixteenth and early seventeenth century iconography, and referred to as a "discant Geig ein quart höher" [treble violin a quarter higher] in Michael Praetorius' Syntagma Musicam De Organographia, 1619. The back, sides, and neck are carved from one piece of wood, much as medieval stringed instruments often had been.

Top: one-piece, quarter-cut softwood: wide grain; wood pin through top into body
Back, sides, neck, and head: one piece fruitwood, possibly cherry; head terminates in scroll; festooned outline
Purfling: on top only
Arching: high with deep recurve
Varnish: dark orange brown
Fingerboard: black-painted hardwood; wedge-shaped; notch and thinning at neck neel position; scratched line under paint marking position of fifth
Nut: ebony
Tailpiece: black-stained fruitwood, possibly cherry, with most of stain removed; tailgut passes through holes drilled in face
Tailgut: plain gut
Pegs: four boxwood with with festooned, undercut heads and integral pins; later
Saddle: dark brown hardwood; finished with same varnish as body
Endpin: integral with body
Soundholes: f-holes with strongly curved, tapered wings
No linings, top or bottom blocks
Bassbar with low, triangular profile
DimensionsTotal kleine geige length: 460 mm
Kleine geige length without endpin: 454 mm
Top length: 241 mm
Upper bout width: 88 mm
Center bout width: 70 mm
Lower bout width: 112 mm
Rib height: 14-16 mm
Stop length: 140 mm
Vibrating string length: 271 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 131 mm

ProvenancePreviously owned by Baron Armand van Zuylen, Liege, Belgium.
Purchased jointly by Marianne Wurlitzer (NY) and Charles Beare (London) at auction held at Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd., London, March 16, 1988, lot #191
Purchased in 1989 from Wurlitzer-Bruck, New York, New York.
Published ReferencesPictured and described in sales catalog, "Important Musical Instruments including the van Zuylen Collection of early instruments," Christie's (London: March 16, 1988), lot 191, p. 43.

"It's Been an Incredible Decade . . . Museum Makes Important Acquisitions Again in 1989," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 17, No. 2 (January 1990), p. 7.

"1989 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society 19, No. 1 (February 1990), p. 16.

Credit LineArne B. and Jeanne F. Larson Fund, 1989

Object number04651

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