The Andreas Berr Lute From 1699

The Galpin Society. For the study of musical instruments. Newsletter no.
62, Spring 2022
The Andreas Berr lute from 1699

In 2012, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston
(https://www.mfa.org/) and spotted a rather small baroque lute,
supposedly made by Andreas Berr in Vienna in 1699 (Figure 1).
For many years, the instrument was in the possession of the Astor
family at Hever Castle, Kent. The lute was then sold at auction by
Christie’s, New York, on 13 May 1981, to Hugh Gough, who, in
1986, sold it to the MFA.
Figure 1. The Andreas Berr lute (Vienna, 1699) 

at the MFA, Boston, inv. no.1986.7.
Several years later, I returned to Boston, where Mr Bobby Giglio,

Department Coordinator of Musical Instruments, showed me the
instrument. According to information supplied by the museum, the
lute (2 x 1, 11 x 2 courses) has the following basic dimensions:
length 81cm, width 28.3cm, depth 13.5cm. The 13-course lute has
a bass-rider (this is a later conversion from the original 11-course instrument), added during its active
playing life. The back comprises 11 ribs of ivory, separated by strips of ebony, with a capping strip.
There are also strips of ebony along the upper edges. Figures 2A and 2B show the front of the
instrument during and after restoration.
Figure 2A (left). 
A view inside the lute during restoration.
Figure 2B (right). 
Front view of the lute on display.
The soundboard is of fine-grain spruce with a carved rose in a geometric pattern. Both the neck and
fingerboard are of ebony. The pegbox is made of ebonized wood, veneered on the front and back with
ebony; its back is decorated with an incised openwork panel of ivory carved in an acanthus leaf pattern.
The later attached arm for the diapason strings and the bridge are made of ebonized wood. The tuning
pegs are of ebony with decorative ivory buttons. The instrument currently has nine frets of gut and
three (later) frets of wood set in to the table. Today, the instrument has 24 strings: two single
chanterelles and nine pairs on the fingerboard, in addition to two pairs of diapasons. Inside the belly
there is a printed label (Figure 3A) that reads: ‘Andreas Berr / Lauten und Geigen: / macher in Wienn
Anno 16 [handwritten: 99]/[handwritten: 3 ur gr (?)i...(?) {could mean ‘zugerichtet’/ ‘finished’}]. On the
underside of the soundboard near the neck joint there are also the incised letters ‘L B’ (Figure 3B).
Figure 3A. The ‘Andreas Berr’

label inside the lute.
Figure 3B. The incised ‘L B’ mark

inside the lute.
The internal construction of the lute (Figure 4) consists of seven lateral braces on the belly (two above
the soundhole and one across the soundhole) and one short, angled brace near the lower end. Burn
marks suggest that some of the ribs have been removed or repositioned. There is no fan bracing.
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Figure 4. The inner construction of the lute.
During my visit, I took some additional measurements from the instrument. The body is typical of a so-
called ‘Bolognese type’ lute. The length for the courses 1 to 11 is 65cm, and the length of the two added
bass courses is 70cm. The bridge holding all 24 strings is approximately 17cm wide and just 6.5cm from
the lower end of the soundboard. The distance between the widest dimension of the soundboard is
28.4cm, at approximately 13cm from the lower edge of the table. The holes in the bridge are too narrow
to allow the use of strings of more than 1.5mm diameter. As a result, for display purposes the museum
uses thinner copper-wound gut strings for the basses. In addition, the surface of the soundboard shows
clear wear marks, possibly indicating the position of the little finger (Figure 5). One egg-shape wear
mark is between the bridge and the rose, and a much stronger mark is directly behind the bridge at the
position of the 1st string.
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Figure 5. Finger marks on the soundboard,
indicated by the white ellipses.
The absence of any other label or mark strongly

suggests that the label inside unambiguously
states the maker of this instrument. Andreas Berr
was born in Freygencht Hohenschwangau, near
Füssen, Germany, in 1656. He married Anna
Margaretha, widow of the lute maker Hans
Klinger in 1680, and obtained Viennese
citizenship in 1681 where he worked until his
death in 1722. Interestingly, Berr is referred to by
Ernst Gottlieb Baron in 1727 as a Viennese lute
maker of some renown, esteemed by individuals
such as Jan Antonín Losy (Figure 6).1
Figure 6. Ernst Gottlieb Baron’s reference to Andreas Berr.
1 Ernst Gottlieb Baron, Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten (Nürnberg: Johann Friederich Rüdiger, 1727), p.99. English
translation of the text: ‘In Vienna, Herr Andreas Bähr and Herr Mattheus Fux, both famous lute makers, are well known. The former
built with wide staves and his instruments enjoyed uncommon esteem with the famous Count Losy.’
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According to various sources, Losy2 must have met Andreas Berr in Vienna, and it is said that as he lay
dying, Losy asked for his ‘small’ Berr lute to be brought to him. The composer Gottfried Heinrich
Stölzel (1690–1749) frequently visited Losy in Prague, and commented admiringly on his lute playing:
Sie spielten, als ein Herr die Laute so gut, als einer immermehr thun kann, der Profetzion
davon macht, auf eine nette, vollstimmige, mehrentheils gebrochene, französische Art, fertig
und gelehrt, indem Sie die Gründe der Setzkunst inne hatten. Dieses geschah gemeiniglich
Vormittage etliche Stunden in Ihrem Bette, als worin Sie sitzend eine kleine Laute schlugen,
welches ich offt anzuhören die Gnade hatte. Kam Ihnen ein Einfall, der besonders nach Ihrem
Geschmack war, so schrieben Sie solchen so gleich auf; liessen ihn aber auch hernach in ein
dazu bestimmtes Behältnis verschliessen. 3
Losy, one of Prague’s most famous sons, clearly did much to popularise the instrument in the Habsburg
territories in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was probably the most significant lutenist-
composer in Bohemia at the height of the lute’s popularity there. His compositions for the baroque lute
are extraordinary and are played by many lute players today. After 1700, according to Thomas
Janowka, ‘Lute playing had become so widespread in Prague that one could cover the roofs of the
palaces with lutes.’4
During or shortly before the auction at Hever Castle, measurements of the instrument were taken by
the lute maker Michael Lowe (Wootton-by-Woodstock). These drawings are currently being used by
Stephen Murphy, luthier in Mollans sur Ouvèze, France, to build a replica of the Berr lute in its
original state as an 11-course instrument. The manufacturing process will be closely documented, and
the results will be shared in 2022.
Figure 7. Bobby Giglio, MFA, presenting the Berr Lute.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Bobby Giglio from the Department

of Musical Instruments for his kindness and showing me
the Berr lute (Figure 7), as well as providing me with
additional material and information. The lute photos
have been kindly supplied to the author by the MFA for
non-commercial use.
Bernhard Fischer
2Jan Antonín Losy, Count of Losinthal (German: Johann Anton Losy von Losinthal); also known as Comte d’Logy (Losi or Lozi),
1650–1721, was a Bohemian aristocrat, lute player and composer mainly in Prague.
3 Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, ‘Biographical recollections on the Duke von Logi’, in Johann Mattheson ed., Grundlage einer Ehren-
Pforte (Hamburg, 1740), pp.171–72. English translation of the text: ‘He played the lute as well as one who makes a profession of it, in
a nice, full-voiced mostly broken French style, complete and learned, since he had mastered the fundamentals of composition. This
commonly happened in the mornings for some hours in his bed, where he sat playing a small lute, which I often had the honour to
hear. If he had an idea that particularly appealed to him, he wrote it down immediately and locked it up afterwards in a box especially
kept for this purpose.’
4 Tomáš Baltazar Janovka, Clavis ad thesaurum magnae artis musicae (Prague, 1701), p.238.
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The Galpin Society. For the study of musical instruments. Newsletter no.

62, Spring 2022

The Andreas Berr lute from 1699

Figure 1. The Andreas Berr lute (Vienna, 1699)

Several years later, I returned to Boston, where Mr Bobby Giglio,

Figure 3A. The ‘Andreas Berr’

Figure 3B. The incised ‘L B’ mark

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The absence of any other label or mark strongly

Figure 6. Ernst Gottlieb Baron’s reference to Andreas Berr.

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Figure 7. Bobby Giglio, MFA, presenting the Berr Lute.

I would like to thank Bobby Giglio from the Department

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