A FRENCH HURDY-GURDY

Mid-18th Century, by Pierre Louvet, inscribed 'Pre Louvet A Paris' on an ivory plaque on the keybox

Details

A FRENCH HURDY-GURDY
Mid-18th Century, by Pierre Louvet, inscribed 'Pre Louvet A Paris' on an ivory plaque on the keybox
The guitar shaped body with ebony back, ribs, keybox lid, pegbox and wheelguard extensively inlaid with mother-of-pearl foliate decoration inset with exotic birds, the table edged in alternating mother-of-pearl and ebony lozenges with two C-holes, six vertical ivory pegs and crank handle, the pegbox surmounted by an ivory woman's head finial, two keyed strings and four drones
27.3/8 in. (69 cm.) long overall

Provenance

Rothschild inv. no. AR281.

Literature

1903 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 131, no. 330.

Lot Essay

The Louvet family had a shop at the sign of 'La Vieille royale' in the Rue de la Croix des Petits Champs in Paris in the eighteenth Century during the fashionable period of the hurdy-gurdy at the French court.

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