Viola d'Amore
Not on view
This very unusual instrument was assembled around 1900 by the musical instrument dealer Leopoldo Franciolini in Florence. The body is from a German bowed zither with its neck removed. Attached instead is an older lion-head viola d'amore scroll and neck. The instrument has six bowed strings and six sympathetic strings. The soundpost and bass-bar are reversed from normal violin positions (necessistated by original zither set up). The body was likely made by Ferdinand Sprenger (1846-1914) in Nuremberg.
The viola d'amore is a bowed stringed instrument which gained great popularity in the eighteenth century. This example was made at a time when interest for older music was growing and collectors were interested in owning old instruments. Franciolini was famous for his creations, alterations, and outright fabrications of "old" instruments.
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