Baroque Viola by Douglas Cox

Beautiful Baroque Viola – After Testore (1733)

Available now is a lovely Baroque viola crafted after a historic model. Built for the dedicated early music practitioner, this instrument delivers a deep, rich, and authentic 18th-century sound.

It is built in baroque form after the work of Paolo Antonio Testore. Typical of that maker, the purfling lines are scribed and the back of the pegbox is flat. It is made of well-aged New England grown wood. The back is cut on the slab from one piece of butternut from Plentywood Farm in Athens, Vermont. The ribs are of butternut similar to that of the back. The neck and scroll are of cherry. The table is of two pieces of spruce of narrow to medium growth. The varnish is of a golden-brown color over a golden ground and is shaded and imitated. The fingerboard and tailpiece are of hop hornbeam. The pegs are of boxwood