{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O58889"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58889/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN1495/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN1495/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN1495","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AN1494","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O58889/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O58889","accessionNumber":"1125-1869","objectType":"Lute","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This lute was made in about 1630 and shows little sign of alteration, which makes it much prized by musicologists and luthiers. Although its provenance remains unknown, it is more likely to have served as an artist’s prop rather than a professional musician’s instrument after the early 1800s. Otherwise, it would all too likely have had parts replaced and metal frets added to its neck. Although it has no label, this lute can be compared with lavishly decorated ebony and ivory instruments produced in Venice between about 1630 and 1650. It is fitted with eleven courses (ten double strings and one single one) and from the early 1600s, Italian composers like Alessandro Piccini (1560–1638) and Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (ca. 1575–ca. 1661) composed music in the Early Baroque style for this instrument.","physicalDescription":"'The body is of nine ivory ribs with ebony stringing intervening. Pine belly with carved rose. Ivory lace. The neck and the back of the head are decorated with floral scrollwork in marquetry of ebony and ivory. Plain ebony fingerboard. The reflexed head holds twenty-one ivory pegs, one of which is a raised peg for the treble string. Eleven courses of strings, the first being single, the rest double.'\n\nAnthony Baines, <i>Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Part II: Non-Keyboard Instruments </i>(London, 1978), p. 30.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ebony","id":"AAT12055"},{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12620"}],"techniques":[{"text":"stringing","id":"x37524"},{"text":"inlay","id":"AAT53850"},{"text":"marquetry","id":"AAT53853"},{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Ebony and ivory inlay, ebony stringing, gluing of ivory, carving","categories":[{"text":"Musical instruments","id":"THES48919"}],"styles":[{"text":"Baroque","id":"AAT21149"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006AN1495","2006AN1494"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"7","id":"THES263054"},"free":"","case":"CA9","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Lute","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Venice (city)","id":"x29237"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1630","earliest":"1625-01-01","latest":"1634-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"82","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"30","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"width of body","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"69","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"string length","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"46","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"body without neck","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"28","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"neck from nut to joint with body","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"170","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The instrument was cleaned by the Museum's conservation department in 1963 and restrung in 1964. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Lute, decorated with ebony and ivory inlay, Venice, ca. 1630","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"PATEY, Carole and Moira Hulse: Musical Instruments at the Victoria and Albert Museum. (London, HMSO, 1978), p.6-7"}],"production":"Though this lute is unsigned the decoration and ribbing is similar to examples by Matteo Sellas and Cristoforo Choc, which date from the 1630s.","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Lute\r\nAbout 1630\n\nThe lute was the most widely played instrument in early 17th-century Europe. Plucked with the fingers, it suited solo music. It could also be used to accompany songs, since it was not too loud and it had a clear tone. When not in use, lutes were usually hung on walls, displaying their backs, which were often highly decorative and made from expensive materials.\n\nItaly (probably Venice)\r\n\nWood, ebony and ivory, inlaid with ebony and ivory\n\n\nRené François, 1621\r\n<i>‘One can make the lute speak as one wishes, and do with one’s audience as one will. When a good player takes up a lute, he needs only to strum three chords, and begin to pick out a melody, that he draws all eyes and ears to him.’</i>","date":{"text":"09.12.2015","earliest":"2015-12-09","latest":"2015-12-09"}},{"text":"LUTE \r\nProbably Italian; about 1630 \r\nIvory ribs, ebony and ivory scrollwork on the back of the neck, ebony fingerboard and pine top  \r\n\r\nNon -keyboard Catalogue No.: 7/1 \r\n \r\nThe lute shows little sign of alteration, and although unsigned, it has been widely attributed to the workshop of Cristoforo Choc, of Venice. The top course is a single string and the remaining ten are double.\r\n\r\n1125-1869","date":{"text":"pre September 2000","earliest":null,"latest":"2000-08-31"}}],"partNumbers":["1125-1869"],"accessionNumberNum":"1125","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1869,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN2674","2019LN8644","2019LW4842"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-12","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-16","availableToBook":false}}