Wenger Viola D'amore: Museum Object and Cultural History
Wenger Viola D'amore: date made: 1722. Object Name: viola d'amore. Physical Description: spruce (overall material).
The object in the museum catalogue
This viola d’amore was made by Gregori Ferdinand Wenger in Augsburg, Germany, in 1722. It is a six-string instrument with six sympathetic strings, made of a two-piece spruce top, two-piece maple, ribs of similar material, head, pegbox and neck are of one piece of pearwood, and gold-brown varnish. The pegbox is ornamented with a carved blindfolded cherub and the top has a pierced carved rose of vine-like design below the fingerboard. There is a label inside the instrument:
Gregori Ferdinand Wenger Lauten-und Geigen-Macher Fecit Augustae 1722
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 1722
- Object Name: viola d'amore
- Physical Description: spruce (overall material)
- Physical Description: maple (overall material)
- Physical Description: pearwood (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 30 1/2 in x 9 1/4 in x 4 1/4 in; 77.47 cm x 23.495 cm x 10.795 cm
- place made: Germany: Bavaria, Augsburg
- ID Number: 1994.0036.02
- accession number: 1994.0036
- catalog number: 1994.0036.02
- Credit Line: Gift of Lex K. Larson in memory of Arthur Larson
- 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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