Chitarra battente

Description

Chitarra battente, a guitar variant with deep body, angled front, short neck and metal strings fastened at the tail. Fourteen peg-holes and a ?later hole for a fifteenth. Front two-piece, with wide grain at edges, and fine grain at centre; stained, like the entire instrument, dark brown; no edging or purfling of any kind; bend 136mm from tail with marks of bridge on the apex. Entire front covered in incised decoration: bearded head in profile in oval between soundhole and bridge, horned head above soundhole, bold acanthus-like motif between bridge and tail, and scrolling foliage and birds down each side. Soundhole with bevelled edge and a collar of fourteen simple leaf-shapes of mother-of-pearl set in black mastic, bordered with two white lines; relics of card from missing rose under soundhole rim. Three frets on front.