HANDBOOK OF THE COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 83 



board and 3 of ebony on the body of the instrument. It is strung 

 with steel wires. For comparison a Spanish cither is shown (95566. 

 pi. 36&). This is little used in Spain at the present time, and a 

 model was made for the Museum in 1893. The chitarra battente 

 (95048) is described by Mr. Hawley as "a cross between the guitar, 

 lute, mandolin, and zither. It has the rounded back made up of 

 longitudinal strips like the lute, the vertical incurving sides and 

 waist of the guitar, the flat belly sloping back from the bridge like 

 the mandolin, and is wire strung like the zither." The specimen 

 exhibited is strung with 10 steel wires, 4 of which are overspun. 

 Another Italian specimen of this instrument is 95262 (pi. 35&), 

 which is larger and is ornamented with a fancy plate of tortoise 

 shell. The sound hole is filled with carved openwork, known as the 

 "sunken rose." 



Many variants of the guitar were in use before the present form 

 became established. Engel states that " during the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century lyre-shaped guitars were fashionable among the 

 ladies of Paris, because playing on them was thought to be graceful, 

 but as they were inconvenient to hold and presented no real advan- 

 tage over other forms of the guitar they were gradually abandoned." 

 An example of a lyre-shaped guitar is 95326 (pi. 416). During the 

 nineteenth century a lute-shaped guitar was in use, the exhibited 

 specimen being 95263 (pi. 36d), inlaid with mother-of-pearl and 

 having a finger board of tortoise shell. The harp lute was invented 

 in England by Light, about the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

 It has a double neck, the posts connected at the top by a curved cross- 

 bar (95323). 



The guitar, as it is known to-day, has incurving, graceful sides 

 suggesting the time when the instrument was either bowed or 

 plucked, it is usually strung with 6 strings — 3 of catgut and 3 of silk 

 wound with silver wire. Its compass is between 3 and 4 octaves up- 

 ward from the second E below middle C. Probably its greatest 

 popularity has been in Spain, but it has had periods of popularity 

 in France and England. 



The oldest guitar exhibited is 93645, a Russian model made in 

 Berlin in 1808. The back and sides are of maple, the belly of pine 

 or spruce, the neck and head of walnut and the finger board of ebony 

 with 20 fixed frets. It is tuned and strung like the modern guitar. 

 An interesting and valuable specimen from England is 95325 (pi. 

 36a) which has a pear-shaped body, the sound hole of which is fitted 

 with an openwork rosette of gilt metal. The design represents the 

 sun surrounded by musical instruments. The finger board is plated 

 with tortoise shell. It has " Preston's screw-tuning device," the 

 screws tuned with a small socket key like a watch key which is 



