Giovanni Battista Grancino I, Milan, 1693, the 'Salzer'
Viola: 49978
Labeled, "Giouanni Grancino in Contrada / Largha di Milano al ſegno. / della Corona 1693."
Back: Two-piece
Scroll: Stamped in base of pegbox interior: 2088
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Notes:
A quinton.The Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, The Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Washington, DC
This fanciful instrument may be an early form of viola d'amore. In addition to the more famous eighteenth century models with metal sympathetic strings running under the fingerboard, versions of the instrument influenced by the Hamburg style may have had only five bowed strings. Two other Grancino instruments of this design survive, another of this dimension in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and a viola in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Milan.
Provenance
| in 1945 | Dr. Hans Salzer |
| until 1962 | Emil Herrmann, New York |
| 1962-1984 | Laurence C. Witten II |
| from 1984 | Shrine to Music, National Music Museum, South Dakota |
References
Grancino viola d'amore; Shrine to Music Museum- The Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (illustrated)
The Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (illustrated)
