Name of Instrument: lira-chitarra

Maker / Brand: Gennaro Fabricatore (through Franciolini)

Stearns Catalog #: 1123

Country of Origin: Naples, Italy

Region of Origin: Europe

Instrument Category: Chordophone

Date of Fabrication: 1808

Location: CHO P 1

Description: This instrument comes to the Stearns Collection from a highly questionable source--Leopoldo Franciolini. Many Franciolini instruments are forgeries or interesting hybrids of original instruments and scrap wood. In this case we have a Lyre-shaped Guitar that was made in Naples by the Gennaro Fabricatore I and sold to the Stearns Collection by Franciolini. Problematically, it is labeled as having been constructed in 1898, however, legitimate instruments of this type—and by this maker—suggest that proper date might be 1808. The designation “Fabricatore” means “maker” and was used by a number of Neapolitan lute and mandolin makers. It was probably not a family name and was used by any number of makers. Their work, however, decade by decade, has much in common. Makers with this name worked from about 1770 to 1830. Additionally, this instrument bears a very close resemblance to one of the same makers that was constructed in 1817 and is now located in the Brussels Conservatoire Royal de Musique, No. 1537. The instrument, therefore, it potentially legitimate and has merely been mislabeled by the unscrupulous Franciolini. It has twenty inlaid ivory frets and six strings that attach to a pin bridge on the lower table.

Research: Dr. Bruce Mitchell Smith