Circa 1800 Italian guitar with ebony and ivory inlay

This entry describes an Italian guitar of about 1800, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and noted for its ebony and ivory inlay. Guitars from Italy at that period were small-bodied, lightly built instruments with a narrow waist and an intricate, decorative approach to construction: the woodwork was veneered, the edges bound, and the surfaces set with inlaid patterns of dark and pale material, in this case ebony and ivory. Instruments of this kind were made for domestic performance of the period's song and chamber repertoire. The maker of this example is not named in the catalogue description available here.

Circa 1800 Italian guitar with ebony and ivory inlay

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