Made in Amsterdam: a rediscovered cittern from 1771

Cittern family instruments enjoyed popularity in the second half of the eighteenth century, most notably on the British Isles and in France. Many such instruments from these regions have survived in museums and private collections. This 'guittar' fashion also took root in the northern Netherlands, although very few extant Dutch-made, late eighteenth century citterns have remained. The recent rediscovery of a cittern signed 'BOUSSU, a Amsterdam, 1771', previously only known from written sources, adds another (and early!) example to this small but significant group of Dutch-made instruments. This paper presentation starts with a short introduction on the use of cittern type instruments in late eighteenth-century Holland. Then, the rediscovered cittern is comprehensively described and portrayed, based on visual observations, endoscopy and CT-scanning, which allows for a detailed analysis of its construction. Its known provenance is also presented. Furthermore, it is discussed and argued whether the violin maker Benoit Joseph Boussu (1703-1773) - primarily known for the bowed stringed instruments he produced in his Brussels period between c 1750 and c 1761 - was truly the maker of the instrument, or merely the trader who only signed the bought-in instrument before reselling it. These analyses lead to the conclusion that a cittern, of equal quality and appearance as foreign examples, had already been built in the Netherlands as early as 1771, including in its design a - for those days - innovative watch-key tuning mechanism. Geerten Verberkmoes (1968) holds degrees in chemistry (MSc), music (BMus) and musical instrument making (MA), and has worked in the fields of chemistry education and acoustics. Currently, he is a musical instrument maker and teaches instrument making and acoustics at the School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium. In addition, he is working on a PhD (Ghent University / School of Arts, Ghent) concerning the life and instruments of the eighteenth century violin maker Benoit Joseph Boussu. His research appears in publications such as Early Music and The Galpin Society Journal.

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