Jean-Baptiste Voboam (1634/46–1692) was a French

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

known for making elaborately embellished baroque guitars. Voboam came from a family of luthiers who were active in Paris from 1640 until 1740. Tortoise and mother of pearl would be used for decorative oval motifs called . The soundboard,

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

, pegbox and other parts of Voboam instruments were edged with ivory and ebony diagonal

inlays Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

called ''pistogne''. A painting by Guillaume Voiriot called ''Monsieur Aublet in Fancy Dress Playing the Guitar'' depicts a man playing a guitar very similar in appearance to one in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

that has been attributed to Voboam on the basis on an engraved inscription on the instrument. The

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

has a six

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

guitar made by Voboam in 1730. Based on the size of the guitar it may have originally been a 4 course guitar. Made of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

with rosewood

veneer Veneer may refer to: Materials * Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth * Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick * Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone * Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood Arts and entertainment * ' ...

, the rosewood sides are inlaid with ebony and ivory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voboam, Jean-Baptiste Guitar makers Baroque artists 17th-century French people