Name/Title
GuitarEntry/Object ID
2001.124.1Description
English guitar, or cittern, with varnished wood (maple, possibly spruce) top, sides, and back attached to a darker wood neck. The neck ends with a scroll bent backwards to provide clearance for the tuning key and is surmounted by a small square head. Ebony fingerboard with 12 inlaid brass frets and 3 holes for the capotasto, which is shaped iivory or bone backed by red morocco leather and fitted with a 1 1/2" screw. Ivory or bone rectangles support the strings at the top of the fingerboard, the top of the shaped bridge, and at the joint of top and sides above the buttonn. The sound board has a metal rose with polychrome enamel and gilded peacock feathers, the face of the sun in the center, and pierced triangles around the perimeter; the sound hole, top, and back are all outlined with a pair of thin black lines. The brass tuning key is tied to the bridge with string; the strings are tuned by means of Preston's "machine". Branded on the back where the neck joins the body: "DODDS. / & / CLAUS. / N.-YORK."Dimensions
Height
4 inWidth
11-1/4 inLength
28-1/4 inMaterial
Maple, spruce, ebony, ivory, metalsInterpretative Labels
Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Eunice Cutts, a daughter of Saco merchant Thomas Cutts, was fifteen when she attended Eleanor Druitt's boarding school in Boston. While there, she purchased this guitar for $25, a substantial sum, from William Selby. For an additional $21.17, she received lessons from Selby for about six months in 1797. Music instruction was commonly offered at female academies. Refined young women were expected to be able to sing (at minimum,) but instrumental accomplishment was even more desirable.