Another digression, I know... My studies of wood finishing concludes that more products were varnished than not. We talk a lot about oil and other finishes, but varnishes and shellacs of various types were the most common. Varnished wood products darken with age. Varnished wood from the mid to late 20th Century is darker now than when new. Varnished wood from the 16h Century has generally taken on a good bit of amber color. The lute Hans Holbein used in his painting, The Ambassadors, had a nice light color. Had that lute survived, and had it been originally varnished, I'll bet would be much darker today. Most old wood stains that I know of were made from acid with iron filings dissolved in the solution. I wonder what would happen to egg white finishes on soundboards?
I wish I could remember where I read about ebony pegs going out of round. It was in some article about vihuelas or lutes. I'll look. CB -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of William Samson Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 1:42 PM To: co...@medievalist.org; Lute List Subject: [LUTE] Re: Ebony Pegs Redux As far as I can tell ebony was not used a lot for tuning pegs throughout the history of the lute - museum catalogues often describe peg material as 'stained fruitwood'. The iconography of pre-1580ish lutes shows that they usually had a blonde finish, and that includes the pegs. One curious thing, though, is that Mace described Laux Maler's lutes as having a 'dark reddish black' colour which does not chime with most paintings of lutes in that period. Has anyone any idea of why this should be the case? Could they all have been stained/varnished at some point? Bill From: "co...@medievalist.org" <co...@medievalist.org> To: Lute List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Monday, 30 September 2013, 11:33 Subject: [LUTE] Ebony Pegs Redux All, The discussion of pegs going out of round is interesting, but it isn't addressing my original question, which was whether ebony was used in pre-1600 instrument building (or for that matter what other woods would have been used in lieu of ebony) and if there is any documentation off this which I can get my hands on. I'd appreciate any information on this subject. Thank you. Regards, Craig To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
