Books › The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933 › scan 108
Scan 108
The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933
14 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. Printed page 90. See the scan on archive.org.
1No. 32
2LUTE
4BERTET
6The elongated body of this lute is of finely figured maple, and varnished a yellow brown. The neck is of ebony and the finger-board of the same wood is edged with an ivory and ebony rhomboid pattern which extends around the sound-board. The peg-box, holding eleven pegs, is gilded and carved at the back and ends in a charming youthful head. The gilded parchment rose, of a Renaissance design, is surrounded by the same rhomboid pattern as the sound-board, bordered by fine ebony and ivory lines. At each end of the ebony bridge are scrolls of a floral design. The instrument bears within the body the printed label:
8BERTET, Luthier, au Roi David
9rue Dauphine. A Paris, 1764
11The expression au Roi David refers to the name of the workshop. Lütgendorff (II, p. 43) says that Joseph R. Bertet was a violin maker in Paris during the years 1754-1774. There is a viola of his in the Snoeck Collection at Berlin. He used a thick yellow varnish and his workmanship was very good.
13Extreme length, 3 ft. 2 1/2 in.; width, 10 1/8 in.; depth, 4 1/2 in.; length of body, 1 ft. 6 in.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.