Guitar
The back, sides, neck, and peghead of this guitar are overlaid with tortoiseshell, ebony, and ivory chevrons with framed scrollwork, lozenges, and geometric banding and edging. The top has a gilded rosette bordered by a band of mother-of-pearl ornaments. Originally strung with five pairs of strings, this instrument was converted in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century to six single courses.
Artwork Details
- Title: Guitar
- Maker: attributed to Jean-Baptiste Voboam
- Date: 1697
- Geography: France
- Culture: French
- Medium: Spruce, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory, ebony
- Dimensions: 38 1/8 × 9 15/16 × 4 in. (96.9 × 25.2 × 10.2 cm)
- Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 1989
- Object Number: 1989.147
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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