Viola d'amore (composite)
date: label: date made
content: 18th century
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This viola d’amore was made by an unknown maker, provenance unknown, probably 18th century. It is a composite instrument made of a two-piece table of spruce, two-piece back of maple with irregular, gently descending figure, ribs of similar maple, plain maple neck, pegbox and scroll, and yellow to yellow-orange varnishes. There is a printed and handwritten repair label inside the instrument:</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Repaired by NR<br>Nicola Reale da Viggiano<br>Washington, D.C., 1939</p>
label: Description
content: <p>This object was probably assembled by Leopoldo Franciolini to represent a viola d’amore with:<br>a) French neck, pegbox and scroll, ca. 1740<br>b) French table with “flame” soundholes, cut at bottom block area for a sympathetic string-holding system with iron tuning pins<br>c) German back, with slopes at upper and lower bouts and ribs, altered to fit a sympathetic string tuning pin system. The resulting instrument is inauthentically configured with six bowed and seven sympathetic strings. Acquired from the collection of Leopoldo Franciolini in 1892.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Leopoldo Franciolini (1844–1920) was an Italian antique dealer who flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is remembered as a fraudster who sold faked and altered historical musical instruments.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Densmore, Frances. Handbook of the Collection of Musical Instruments in the United States National Museum.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.095279
label: accession number
content: 26256
label: catalog number
content: 95279
objectType: label: Object Name
content: viola d'amore
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ebony (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: gut (strings material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (strings material)
label: Physical Description
content: spruce (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: maple (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 26 1/2 in x 9 1/8 in x 4 in; 67.31 cm x 23.1775 cm x 10.16 cm