This Baryton has three sets of strings: one set is bowed and the remaining two resonate in sympathy with the bowed strings and are also plucked to accompany the bowed strings. The soundboard was built using the system of using bent staves, as used in barrel making or cooperage. It has a golden yellow varnish.

Length 123 cm
Width 36 cm
Height 23 cm

The body of the bass viola da gamba – including the soundboard – is made entirely from Spanish cedar. The fingerboard and tailpiece are bordered with a decorative gold leaf pattern. The carved and gilded head is of the biblical character Daniel. This instrument has six strings.

Length 122 cm
Width 385 cm
Height 231 cm

This bass viola da gamba has been constructed in the late 17th century French style. The carved head is of a dragon suggested by the fashion of the period and styled on an original by Joachim Tielke of Hamburg. This viola has the lower seventh string introduced by the French composer St Colombe in the 1680s. This viola has seven strings.

Length 120 cm
Width 360 cm
Height 216 cm

This small instrument, a lyra viol, has an extra set of sympathetic strings that through a hollow channel carved in the neck. The head is typical of a style of carving from the early 17th century in England. The fingerboard and tailpiece are decorated with inlaid geometric patterns of black and white lines. The varnish is a deep red brown.

Length 115 cm
Width 33 cm
Height 20 cm

This tenor viol has a fingerboard and tailpiece decorated in marquetry with contrasting boxwood inlaid with sand-shaded walnut. The scroll is heavily carved with a deeply cut floral decoration. It has double lines of inlaid decorative ‘purfling’ around the edges of both front and back and similar inlaid lines around both sound holes, In the centre of the soundboard there is a decorative inlaid ‘rosette’ which is cut from maple and backed with punched parchment.

Length 88 cm
Width 28.5 cm
Height 17.1 cm