English guitar
Jaco Vieira da Silva
Lisbon
About 1780
Pine back, sides and soundboards, with pine and wood purfling; brass openwork rose, framed with mother of pearl
Length 78 cm (total), 34 cm (body); width 31.5 cm, depth, 7.5 cm
Museum no. 208-1882

The English guitar was a fashionable instrument from about 1750, considered easy to play and tuned in C major, although the player would use a capo, much like a modern folk-guitarist, in order to change the key. The tuning pegs were often small metallic pins that could be turned with a watch-key, to keep the strings in tune longer.

This instrument was made in Portugal, a country with strong trading links with England, and its peg box is decorated with a paper 'cameo' in imitation of a jasper ware medallion, a motif made popular by Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) from about 1770.