German Double Bass: Museum Object and Cultural History
German Double Bass: Date made: 1878 - 1882. Object Name: Double Bass. Physical Description: spruce (overall material).
The object in the museum catalogue
This double bass was made by an unknown maker in Germany, around 1878-1882. It is constructed in viol form. This bass has a one-piece table of spruce, a two-piece back of maple with mild, irregular horizontal figure, ribs of similar maple, two scribed lines on table and back in representation of purfling, neck, pegbox and scroll of plain beech with four individual brass tuning mechanisms, and yellow-brown varnish.
John Howard Foote (1833-1896) was a musical instrument dealer with shops in New York City and Chicago. The 1882 J. Howard Foote musical instrument catalog lists “DOUBLE BASSES. Commonly called Double Bass Viols. German manufacture, with patent, or machine heads: No. 6027 Large Size, 4 stringed, good quality, and good tone, with better patent head. $42.00 each.”
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date made: 1878 - 1882
- Object Name: Double Bass
- Physical Description: spruce (overall material)
- Physical Description: maple (overall material)
- Physical Description: brass (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 16 in x 75 in x 25 1/2 in; 40.64 cm x 190.5 cm x 64.77 cm
- place made: Germany
- ID Number: MI.072847
- catalog number: 72847
- accession number: 12809
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
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