Violin by the Bassano Brothers, London c.1575.
I was asked to examine a primitive violin catalogued in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments as a nineteenth-century mute violin on the possibility it may be from a century earlier, but the object had long been of interest to me, and the opportunity to handle it confirmed that it was probably from the sixteenth century, and that the insect markings on the corners were anatomically specific to the silk moth, an armorial symbol of the Bassano family who came to London from Venice in 1538. The discovery of a second similar instrument at Dean Castle in Kilmarnoch, this time decorated with Tudor emblems of the roses of York and Lancaster provided corroborative evidence. Instruments of this sort are quite numerous within English iconography of the sixteenth century, and profound similarities to the workmanship on the British Museum citole (see below) helped to form a better picture of who did the work to turn that into a violin. When a third example appeared on the market I was able to assist the Edinburgh museum to purchase the instrument including providing expert opinion to the National Art Fund for Scotland in order to enable the instrument to be purchased.
These represent the earliest violin-family instruments made in Britain.
