f'lnim.-Tbe de i n forth b 4h· ,t rnandolio, u herein bowo nd d ribed. •

170. Patent drawing of mandolin body invented by Herman]. Weckwerth 171. Bowed mandolin by Joseph Collingwood for the patentee, Herman}. Weckwerth. Ottumwa, Ia., c. 1900. L. 26 in. (89.4.2909)

head bearing geared tuners. The patent drawing does not include a bridge and shows a flat fretted fingerboard more like a mandolin's; the present example's high arched bridge and violin-type fin­ gerboard indicate that its ·strings were bowed rather than plucked. This model also has a violin's sound post and bass bar and a padded chin rest on the tailpiece. The one-piece arched maple back and pine top are varnished dark brown. The only apparent virtue of Weckwerth's design is that the body would have been easy to construct because it contains no complex curves and joints. Daniel Nolan must not have found it very useful, since he gave it away after affixing a handwritten note: "This is presented to the Museum of Arts by Daniel Nolan musician Brooklyn N.Y. Novem­ ber 1902." Why it was accepted will remain for­ ever a mystery. Ever since the Middle Ages attempts have been made to build a practical keyboard instrument capable of sustaining tone through bowing strings; the hurdy-gurdy, bowed by a rotating wheel, is the earliest and most successful type. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a keyed, bowed viola organista around 1488, and in the late sixteenth century Hans Hayden of Nuremberg built harpsichord­ shaped instruments with treadle-operated circular bows. The nineteenth century saw its share of bowed keyboard innovations, and one example, bearing the name Claviola, is in the Museum's collection (Fig. 173). Because this name has been applied to several different instruments, confusion has arisen regarding the origin of this example. The Museum's 1903 catalogue of keyboard in­ struments mistakenly credited the Claviola's in­ vention to the ingenious engineer John Isaac Hawkins of Bordentown, New Jersey (later of

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