Double-necked guitar, wood/metal/bone/mother-of-pearl, maker unknown, [Russia or Germany], c.1900-1910.

Double-necked guitar, shield shaped body; two soundholes in upper bouts follow contour of cutaway shoulders; rosewood back and ribs; spruce table; double ivory purfling on back and sides; seven strings (one missing) on fretted main neck; four strings on unfretted bass neck; ivory or bone tuning pegs and brass machines on both necks; original brass key to adjust neck angle at heel; straight black paint or lacquer on bridge, necks and headstock.

The vendor's father, Vladimir Gavrilov owned the guitar in Russia from c. 1913.

No label or makers mark on the instument other than pencilled initials 'ME' inside the back.

The vendor states that she has a photograph taken in about 1913 of her father playing this instrument.

Vladimir Gavrilov (died 1974) owned the guitar in Russia from about 1913. He took it to Shanghai when he fled Russia in 1918, then bought it to Australia as an immigrant in 1947. Mr Gavrilov used to say that the guitar had belonged to the Russian guitarist Vladimir Svarog, and is the instrument included in the portrait of Svarog by the Russian painter Ilya Repin (1844-1930)
Helen Kaye, daughter of Vladimir Gavrilov, received the guitar after her father's death in 1974.

Purchased 1994

94/109/1

1900