Viola d'amore (composite)
date: label: date made
content: 18th century
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>This viola d’amore (composite instrument) was made by an unknown maker, probably Eastern Europe, 18th century. This instrument has a two-piece table of pine, one piece back of slab-cut fruitwood with central strip inlay of dark hardwood, ribs are of similar fruitwood; neck and pegbox of plain fruitwood with a stained black carved blindfolded male head, and yellow-brown varnish. The label, printed and handwritten, indicates a date of 1853 with other text that remains to be identified and translated.</p>
label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>It is possible that this instrument from the Sarah Frishmuth collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum may have come through the hands of Leopoldo Franciolini toward the end of the 19th century. The body is a composite of an 18th-century back and ribs joined with a 19th-century table re-cut and edged to accommodate the body outline. The neck and peg-box are probably original to the body, with late 19th-century stained black pegs, carved head and fittings.</p>
label: Description (Brief)
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
place: label: place made
content: Eastern Europe
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania (through Dr. Robert H. Dyson)
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.65.0644
label: accession number
content: 1991.0406
label: catalog number
content: 65.0644
objectType: label: Object Name
content: viola d'amore
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: pine (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: hardwood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fruitwood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 3/4 in x 8 7/8 in x 4 in; 78.105 cm x 22.5425 cm x 10.16 cm