Creator Warnock, Donald

Medium Instrument

City Boston | Region | Old kingdom

INSTRUMENT
A vihuela made by Donald Warnock (1919-1997), one of the pioneer American builders of historical stringed instruments. The instrument’s handwritten label reads: “Vihuela de mano/ en sol/ [in different ink: #1]/ made June 1964 by/ Donald Warnock/ Cambridge Mass; printed below heel: DONALD WARNOCK / made this 1964”. Sold by the maker to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1982.

The following description is reproduced from the Boston MFA website: Two-piece back and ribs of pearwood. Multi-piece belly of fine-grain spruce with binding of paduak (?) and inlays of holly (?) and cedar (?) diamond patterns. Separate carved rose of wood in geometrical pattern. Neck of rosewood. Headstock of nine plys of rosewood and maple. Tuning pegs of ebony (?). Fingerboard of paduak (?) with ten tied-on frets of gut. Nut of ivory. Bridge of paduak (?) with cap of rosewood. Twelve strings in six pairs. Length 99.5 cm, width 27.1 cm. Sold by the maker to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (Accession Date: January 13, 1982, Accession no: 67.1232)

Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced with permission.