Viola
Maker
Ernst Busch
Date1641
Place MadeNuremberg, Germany, Europe
Serial No.None
SignedPrinted on trapezoidal paper label with year written in black ink: Ernft Bufch, / in Nürmberg. / 1641DescriptionThe Busch and Hiltz family produced very fine violin and viola da gamba family instruments with festooned designs in Nuremberg in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This example by Ernst Busch features both carved decoration on the head, and dyed-wood marquetry on the body. Prior to the influence of Jacob Stainer's designs, the early Nuremberg school represents one fashion for high-end bowed instruments in German-speaking lands.
DimensionsTotal viola length: 714 mm
Back length: 431 mm (17")
Top length: 432 mm
Width at upper corners, back: 200 mm
Center bout width, back: 137 mm
Lower bout width, back: 239 mm
Width at narrowest point of first festoon, back: 202 mm
Width at widest point of second festoon, back: 224 mm
Width at joint with lowest rib, back: 139 mm
Stop length: 253 mm
Vibrating string length: 408 mm
Rib heights: 38-39 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 156 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to edge of top plate): 153 mm
Length of back inlay near button (from theoretical line continuing upper purfling: 44 mm
Maximum width of back inlay near purfling: 35 mm
Length of central back inlay: 98 mm
Maximum width of central back inlay: 48 mm
ProvenancePurchased by Tony Bingham at Sotheby's auction in London, November 22-23, 1989. Purchased in 1989 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
Published ReferencesAnthony Baines, European and American Musical Instruments, plate 43, pp. 18, 20, pl. 106.
Sotheby's auction catalogs 11/22/1984, cover & pp. 66-67 (lot #67), and 11/22-23/1989, pp. 50-51. (lot #156)
"Recent Acquisitions Frogs and Swans and Snakes and Things . . .," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 18, No. 4 (July 1991), p. 4.
Carl Claudius, Samling of Gamle Musikinstrumenter, pp. 224-225.
Credit LineArne B. and Jeanne F. Larson Fund, 1989
Object number04881
On View
Not on view
