>> The very open rose and the moustach-looking bridge remind me of the >> wandervogels we see on ebay regularly. > > Wandervogels do not have double courses. Double strung replicae only > started to appear from Markneukirchen in the 1960ies. But this > instrument appears to be a little older than that. I have seen (photos) double strung "historical" lutes from early 20th century. Did not save the links, sadly. However there are a couple of such lutes at the Cite-se-la Musique, one with a "Willam Morris" rose, from 1880's, otherwise it looked competent.
> > As to the outline of the soundboard, you can find all kinds of types in > wandervogels from broad Tieffenbrucker/Venere to narrow Maler types. > > What strikes me, is the the position of the bridge: with lutes, it > should be a little more toward the lower rim, if I'm not mistaken. I've > seen pictures of mandoras, however, where the bridges are positioned > like on this instrument. The very crude soundboard is definitely as late as a WV. The rest looks like a gallichon. > >> How about the frets? They certainly aren't tied. Are they fret slots >> cut with a very fine saw and intended for modern metal frets? > > yes, obviously. But that isn't evidence to the age, because it may just > as well have been done later. > >> Regarding the label, would the handwriting on an original be in the >> relatively modern-looking style shown, or would it be in the old German >> cursive script? If the latter, the upper case "Ch," the "H," the "o," >> and the "a" would take quite different forms than those on the label in >> the photo. > > I can read the name *Chr(isti)an Hoffmann* in the upper line (latin > letters). In the centre is *und*, but that's all I can read. At the > lower right is *1733*. My next step would be to compare original labels > of Hoffmann jr. It looks awfully shallow for a Hoffmann shell. RT To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
