My view is that it is most likely a guitar (or rather late 19thC german lute/guitar) conversion direct from a lute. There are numerous examples of 18thC Colachons/mandoras (see Gill et als) and leaving aside the obvious guitar conversion features (eg bridge, rose) it looks pretty atypical (eg very sloping shoulders). It cld be that the back (with label) is the only original feature; if the whole thing isn't a fake, - but was Hofmann ever faked as the earlier Italian makers were (by Francolini and others)? Was he famous enough to capture the fanciful imagination of 19th/20thC Museum curators? Martyn
Roman Turovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Seems to be A MANDORA, but the top is not original, was made into a guitar. RT ________________ http://polyhymnion.org > From: "Hans Kockelmans" > > A strange lute by Joh Christian Hoffmann, 1733 for sale. What could it be? A > colascione? > http://www.music-treasures.com/ click on ANTIQUE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 1595 - > 1930 and then baroque lute. > H. > > ___________________________________________________________ $0 Web Hosting with up to 120MB web space, 1000 MB Transfer 10 Personalized POP and Web E-mail Accounts, and much more. Signup at www.doteasy.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com --
