‘clifton’ 7/7 viola d’amore
Flamed Maple Back & Ribs. Plain Maple neck with carved blindfolded cupids head.
Spruce Soundboard with Apple wood Rosette and 'flame' sound holes. Ebony veneered fingerboard and Tailpiece. Boxwood pegs with bone pips.
Linseed Oil & Pine Resin Varnish.
Plain & Silverwound gut playing strings. Brass, copper wound and iron sympathetics.
Photos by Ellen Broughton.
This instrument was made for Clifton Harrison (Kreutzer Quartet) for period performance. More details about the instruments construction, use and specifications can be found here;
To hear this instrument played live, check Clifton’s concert schedule here.
“I asked for an instrument that could effectively navigate the entire range of viola d’amore repertoire, from the seventeenth century right up to the present. While it is primarily configured in a ‘typical’ baroque setup with gut playing strings and wire sympathetic strings, I also requested that the instrument be able to cope with wire playing strings, various tensions, synthetic core modern strings, and anything else that I could think of. This was a big ask and Jonathan came up with this beautiful instrument. It is a convertible 7/7 to 6/6 setup. This allows the most flexibility for me.”