Viol, possibly bass

Description

A viol which has ridges extending from the bout corners onto the belly and a rose hole set high on the belly between the upper bouts. The outline is square-shaped, but the spruce front is elegantly shaped, with flat arching, and a band of purfling (a strip of pale wood sandwiched between two black strips) is inlaid along the contours. The back is flat, canted at the shoulders, and made of a single piece of dark figured walnut, without purfling. The neck, fingerboard, and tailpiece are recent, but the elaborately carved pegbox and head, grafted onto the neck, are original. The pegbox is decorated with foliate scrolls and ends in a finely carved satyr's head.