Cittern or English Guitar, William Gibson ca.1760
Measurements body:
width :31.7 cm
total length :78.5 cm
body length rear :37 cm.
string length :46 cm.
A cittern or English Guitar made by William Gibson ca 1760, in Dublin. The top is spruce and the back and sides are slab-cut maple or possibly platane. The fingerboard is solid ivory and has 3 holes for the fastening of a capo-tasto; also there are 2 pieces of ivory on the headstock to reinforce the machine heads. As far as I know these are the earliest known examples of "modern" (worm- gear) machineheads. Most citterns from this period have so called" watch key " tuners, which today are still found on the viola ( portugese guitar). On the back of the neck there is a slit where theleft-hand thumb fits. The rose that has been fitted in the soundhole is made of guilded brass. The bridge has a banjo- like shape,with an ivory top.and the strings are fastened tto the bottom with small ivory pegs. There is no purfling at the edges front and back, merely a double inked line, a practice that was common in 18th century violin making. The tuning (low to high) was C,E,gG,cc,ee,gg.
There is no certainty about the origin of this type of instrument, there are however strong connections with Portugal (guitarra portugesa) and Germany (waldzither), where they are still found, allthough only as a second hand item in Germany.
Citterns were widely used by amateurs in the 18-th century, hence the use of "open tunings" and the capo, which facilitated playing in different keys. The existence of these instruments was one of the inspirations for luthiers like Stefan Sobell and others who are building citterns of varying dimensions,that are mostly used in celtic and irish music.
Alas ,we will never know whether or not this 18th century -William was a relation of Orville a luthier at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States.( see article on Gibson mandolin), but it is quite a coincidence!

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