Description
A seventeenth-century french Haute-contre viola, circle of Wilhelm Azan, Aix-en-Provence, 1668.
Seventeenth-Century French instruments are particularly rare. This early viola approximates to the Haute-Contre size found in the French violin bands of the seventeenth century that employed three different kinds of viola. The inscription inside the instrument is largely illegible except for the date of 1668 that corresponds nicely to the dendrochronology, and in form it bears a remarkable likeness to a bass violin in the Musée de la Musique in Paris, made by Wilhelm Azan in Aix-en-Provence, as does the rich deep-red varnish. The purfling is in ink, and there are additional inner lines of purfling on the c-bouts which I have also seen on a similarly aged French viola da gamba. Despite the rough outline, the instrument has similarities in the form of sound hole and the overall arching to works of Gaspar da Salo, and is a very fine instrument of considerable Brescian influence.
Certificate: Available upon request
Condition notes: The head is later, heavily restored.
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