Illustrated London News Vol 56 (page 3/4)

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: D.—Machête.

“The machête, or small guitar, shaped like a fish, is a Portugese instrument, from Madeira.” (p. 368)

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: E.—Quinterna, of Chiterna

The quinterna, or chiterna, made at Hamburg in 1539, is ornamented with tortoise-shell, ivory figures, and precious stones; it has ten strings of cat-gut.” (p. 368) [more...]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: F.—Guitar

“[F] is an Italian Guitar of the sixteenth century, which seems to have been mounted with five sets of strings, fouor sets having three strings each, and one set having four strings, each set tuned in unison; the wood is inlaid [...] [more...]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: G.—Flauto dolce, or flûte à bec.

The Flauto dolce, or sweet flute, is called in English the Recorder.; in French is is the flûte à bec or beaked flute. [more...]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: H.—Vielle, or Hurdy-Gurdy

“The French vielle, which we should call a hurdy-gurdy, bears the date of 1550, and the monograms of Catherine de Medici and of Henri II., with the Royal arms of France; it has ten ivory keys and six tuning pegs; it is decorated, in black [...] [more...]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: K.—Violin.

“The Earl of Warwick sends a boxwood violin, carved with woodland scenes, bearing the date of 1578, which was given by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester, and which our present Queen [Victoria] examined with particular interest when she visited the museum a fortnight ago.” (p. 368)

“Our illustration marked K represents the boxwood violin, bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth [the first] and the Earl of Leicester engraved in silver on its finger-board, to which we have referred. It is described both by Hawkins and Burney, in their books on the history of music, having belonged to the Duke of Dorset, at the sale of whose furniture it was bought by Mr. Bremner, in the Strand. It is two feet long from the extremity of the tail-pin to the dragon’s head, and carved with a woodman cutting at the fallen branches of an oak, and with another man beating down acorns for hogs to eat, besides much foliage and other ornamentation. From the thickness of the wood and from its encumbrance with these decorations, the tone of the violin is but dull and sluggish; and the neck, being too thick for the hand to grasp, has a hole for the player’s thumb, by which the hand is so confined that the range of fiddling performance must be very limited. Upon the nut which fastens the tail-piece is the date 1578, with the initials J. P., which may be [more...] [$]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: L.—Italian Kit, or Small Fiddle.

“The remaining articles shown in our Illustration are two kits, or small fiddles, one being Italian, of the date 1600 [...]” (p. 368)

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: M.—Italian Lute, about 1580

Judging by the tuning pins there are 17 strings on this instrument, but I’m not sure it’s wise to take the illustration too literally.

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: N.—Viola di Bordone

A Violoa di Bordone is a stringed musical instrument played with a bow. It is a sort of viol with cat-gut strings, but with a second, parallel set of metal strings. The metal strings are not played with the bow directly, but resonate in [more...] [$]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: O.—Harp-Lute

“The instrument called a harp-lute, with twelve strings, was invented by Edward Light, of London, about seventy years ago, and was designed for accompanying vocal [...] [more...]

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: Q.—Castanets.

“[...] with two pair of modern castanets, one ivory and the other ebony, which require no special notice.” (p. 368)

Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum: R.—Spinet

A Spinet is a sort of harpsichord—that is, a musical instrument with a keyboard but in which the keys are plucked rather than monked with a hammer as in a piano. The strings in a spinet go off at an angle, [...] [more...]