New England Bass Viol or Violoncello: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This New England Bass Viol or Violoncello was made by an unknown maker in New England, about 1850. It has a two-piece table of pine, two-piece back of quarter-cut American maple with faint, fine horizontal figure and added original wings on the upper and lower left bouts, ribs of similar maple, original maple neck, pegbox and scroll with bird's-eye maple pegs (five), and semi-transparent yellow varnish.

This is an unusual instrument with a fifth top e' string and shallow ribs. It retains the neck, fingerboard, bass bar, tailpiece, endpin and pegs in unaltered original condition. The instrument bears typical f-holes connected to the table at the upper and lower wing areas, and ribs that are inlaid into the table and back.

The modern term for this instrument is church bass. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this instrument was also known as the American bass viol, New England bass viol, or Yankee bass viol. These church basses were used in churches and meeting houses to provide a bass line for maintaining a consistent key by New England congregational singers. The church bass was also used by popular singing groups such as the Hutchinson Family singers.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: ca 1850
• Object Name: Viol
• Physical Description: pine (overall material)
• Physical Description: maple (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 49 in x 17 in x 7 1/2 in; 124.46 cm x 43.18 cm x 19.05 cm
• place made: United States: New England
• ID Number: MI.79.02
• catalog number: 79.02
• accession number: 1978.2377
• 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.