Nicolò Amati Violoncello: the "Herbert"
date: label: Date made
content: 1677
name: label: maker
content: Amati, Nicolo
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This violoncello was made by Nicolò Amati in Cremona, Italy, 1677. It is the <i>Herbert</i> violoncello with a two-piece spruce top of medium to wide grained with wings to the flanks, two-piece back of quarter sawn poplar, ribs of maple cut on the slab, and scroll (probably by a later hand) of maple cut on the quarter. The golden-brown is applied over a golden ground. There is an original printed label inside the instrument:</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Nicolaus Amatus Cremonen. Hieronymi<br>Fil. ac Antonij Nepos Fecit. 16<i>77</i></p>
label: Description
content: <p>[“77” is handwritten]</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Beginning in the late 19th century, this violoncello was owned for some fifty years by Mr. George Herbert, an amateur musician of London, and today bears his name to help trace its history. It was acquired by the violin dealer Emil Herrmann who assembled a quartet of Amati instruments (the 1656 <i>King Louis XIV</i> and the 1672 <i>Florian Zajic</i> violins, the 1663 <i>Professor Wirth</i> viola, and the 1677 <i>Herbert</i> violoncello) for Mrs. Anna E. Clark. She lent them to the Loewenguth Quartet of Brussels before bequeathing the quartet to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The Corcoran loaned the quartet to the Claremont String Quartet of the North Carolina School of the Arts, and in 1975, to the Tokyo String Quartet, and then to the Takács Quartet before selling them to Dr. Herbert Axelrod in 1998.</p>
place: label: place made
content: Italy: Lombardy, Cremona
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Cellos
label: Exhibition
content: North Music Lobby
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Evelyn and Herbert R. Axelrod
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2000.0100.04
label: accession number
content: 2000.0100
label: catalog number
content: 2000.0100.04
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cello
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: spruce (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: poplar (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: maple (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall:: 49 in x 17 7/8 in x 10 in; 124.46 cm x 45.4025 cm x 25.4 cm