Guitar - Image 1

Domenico Sellas, son of the instrument maker Matteo Sellas (b. Fuessen, ca. 1574-1586), was born in Venice about 1632. The crown (Alla Corona) inscribed on the peghead was the shop sign used by these two Venetian luthiers. Matteo and Domenico were members of an important family of 17th-century stringed instrument makers, most of whom were born in Fuessen in the Tyrol, but did most of their work in Venice. This highly decorated guitar features a spruce top inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl. The fingerboard is inlaid with incised, mother-of-pearl plaques. Although the rosette is a replacement, it is stylistically appropriate for the period. The instrument is strung with five double-courses of gut strings, typical of 17th-century Venetian guitars.