Dried dog fish skin and the horse hair plant
Student, Edward Klose, has completed a copy of a 17th century treble viol by English Maker William Turner, easily identifiable by the Turner trademark heart rosette. Following a study trip to the Orpheon Foundation at Castello di Duino, Italy, Edward, now in his second year at West Dean College, brought back his drawings and measurements of the heritage treble viol from the Vazquez Collection of historical instruments, which had been modified out of all proportion, and determined to explore how the instrument would have looked and played originally, despite its deterioration over the centuries.
"The modified treble viol was too large so I had to scale my drawings down," says Edward. "The instrument had become warped and twisted. I made a drawing of this shape and, in order to obtain a symmetrical plan, I found a centreline and folded the drawing length ways and took the mean line from the two outlines. In Italy I had used a camera to see inside the original instrument and found a stave of spruce behind the heart rosette for stability, which is unusual. I knew I would enjoy the challenge of making a copy of the instrument."
