50731-087-100
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RCM 241 English Guitar with keys English, c.1790 Inscriptions None
Provenance Gift of Sir George Donaldson, 1899 References Wells 1984, p.13
Brief descriptions English guitar (‘pianoforte guitar’) with six keys operating a hammer action Dimensions : 725, without hitchpegs 721½ : 385 : 300 : at tail 75.9, at joint 45.2 : 424½ (twice distance to octave fret 426) Description Six courses, wire-strung; the lowest two single, the upper four double; tuned c, e, g, c1, e1, g1. Simple spoon-shaped outline. Front two-piece of fine to wide, slightly wavy grain. Golden varnish; herringbone edging; wide red and black painted purfling; similar on back and ribs. Back two-piece, of figured maple curved lengthways and slightly transversely. Ribs of fainter curl. Rose of cast metal, slightly domed, with a raised and turned moulded collar of ivory; two lines of red and black painted purfling form collar. Rose depicts two figures, a man playing a flute and a woman a hurdy-gurdy, surrounded by flowers and garlands. Neck and tuning-head of maple with figure of slight curl; hook finial is an extra piece. Square face of finial veneered with decorative plaque made of veneers of ?holly, ?walnut and ?maple. Convex ebony-veneered fingerboard with twelve brass frets; nut of ivory; capo tasto holes behind first three frets. Strings tuned by ten watchkey tuners. Ten turned ivory hitch-pegs in tail-block. Key and hammer mechanism is contained in an elliptical box mounted on two legs which are attached to the tail-block by two brass screws. Rim of keybox of maple and top of softwood, decorated with painted purfling matching the rest of the instrument. Six plain bone touch-plates on an underlayer of mahogany operate a simple hammer action. Hammers of mahogany; limewood heads, leather-covered. Commentary The irregular openings in the rose appear to have been pierced after casting. Neck and top-block seem to be in one piece. The hammer-action is in effect an inversion of Zumpe’s square piano action but with wire springs instead of gravity to return key and hammer. There is no escapement: the limit of the key fall prevents the hammer blocking on the string. On the hammer-heads are two flat layers of leather covered with two more wrapped around, flesh-side out. Three lowest hammers original, the other three replacements; strike point of hammers is c.32mm from nut. A similar detachable box and hammer-action added later to an English guitar by Hintz now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is marked ‘Smith’s Patent Box’ (see Baines 1968, pp.48, 50 and fig.72). No patent is recorded and nothing further is known of Smith.
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English guitar with keys, RCM 241