They don't make them like they used to

[Nick Payne]

Back in the early 1970s I spent a very happy afternoon in the Victoria & Albert Museum, looking at their musical instrument collection, and came away from the museum shop with a book of photos of their collection, titled "Musical Instruments as Works of Art". One of the most amazing instruments in both the collection and the book is a guitar made in 1693 in the Hamburg workshop of Joachim Teikle. I just looked at the V&A web site and they have some images of that instrument online. The decoration is mainly ivory and tortoiseshell along with ebony and pewter:

[Allen]

That's a labour of love. Can't even begin to imagine the hours that went into that, and how would you charge it out today?

Thanks for posting Nick.

[sam]

Thanks for posting that one, Nick. Breathtaking.

The collections of the National Music Museum in South Dakota
include a Stradivarius guitar, known as the Rawlins Stradivari Guitar 1700.

http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/PluckedStrings/ ... uitar.html

I was impressed by its understated beauty.

(Their web site has a magnification feature , so I've provided a link rather than
an image)

They also have plans available for that instrument.

Sam

[sam]

Sorry, the link didn't go down as planned. This might be better. S

http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/PluckedStrings/ ... uitar.html

[Kim]

Client to Joachim Teikle: Yes, yes, I want it as elaborate as possible.

Joachim Teikle to client: I charge by the hour to be paid on a weekly basis you know.

Client to Joachim Teikle: Yes, of course, that's fine. Take as long as you need but make it spectacular.

Joachim Teikle to Australian MOP: Hello Martin its Joachim, I'll take 100kg of your best MOP blanks thanks mate.

Martin @ Aust MOP: Geez that's a lot of MOP Joachim!

Joachim Teikle to Martin @ Aust MOP: Yes it is Martin, but I plan to make it last well into my retirement in decade or two

[kiwigeo]

The rosette on my lute took me 4 days to do...plus the 7 days I spent on the 7 practise runs. That was for a relatively simple lute rosette.

[Nick Payne]

Don't forget that this instrument was made at a time when the guitar was very popular with both royalty and the aristocracy - Robert de Visée, for example, was one of the favourite musicians of King Louis XIV of France, and another guitarist whose name escapes me held a similar position at the English court. And some sort of proficiency on a musical instrument was considered part of the normal education of the nobility. So there were plenty of rich customers who could afford such an instrument, especially considering the probably paltry wages paid to the craftsmen who made them.

[P Bill]

The poor old working muso was probably pretty chuffed with his Strad.

[Paul B]

Colin Symonds (sp?), told me that rosettes like that are surprisingly simple to do, but really time consuming. Pity he's no longer here to elucidate.