Museum objects and historical recordings. Citing a collection's public record is not a relationship with the collection.
STR-P01 · Museum object
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Violin, Nicolò Amati, 1669
Violin, Nicolò Amati, 1669. Nicolò Amati. 1669. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (marked object images). via The Met, Open Access. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
The museum record describes heavy use, mid-nineteenth-century modernisation, painted decoration from around that period, and a 1977 refit with a shorter fingerboard and gut strings intended to approach an earlier configuration. A continuous name, a discontinuous instrument, and a documented attempt to go partway back.
The marked object images are public domain. Modern performance audio on the same object page is not offered under those terms and is treated here as link only.
Source pageLocal copy: none held
STR-P03 · Museum object
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Division viol labelled Richard Meares, ca. 1680
Division viol labelled Richard Meares, ca. 1680. ca. 1680. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (object images). via The Met, Open Access. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
The museum's research indicates the label does not straightforwardly establish authorship: the instrument was likely begun in another workshop, left unfinished at its maker's death, and possibly completed and labelled by a successor, with dendrochronology contributing to the dating. A label is a claim, not a provenance.
Modern performance audio on the object page is treated as link only.
Source pageLocal copy: none held
STR-A01 · Audio
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Zapateado (Sarasate), performed by Jan Kubelík
Zapateado (Sarasate), performed by Jan Kubelík. Jan Kubelík. 1910. Public domain. via Gallica, via Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
A genuine early recording of a violin, and therefore a recording of a recording technology as much as of an instrument.
This is a record of a performance, not of an object. Nothing here identifies which instrument was played, and it must not be paired with any museum object on this site as though it did.
Source pageLocal copy: none held
ORG-A01 · Audio
May be mirrored - CC BY-SA, share-alike on derivativesEarly-eighteenth-century pipe organ, Cisnădioara
Early-eighteenth-century pipe organ, Cisnădioara. Performed by Anna Arhire. Recorded by Cristian Văraru; uploaded by Impy4ever. CC BY-SA 3.0. via Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
Pipes, wind system, room, tuning state, performer, microphone and building, all sounding at once. The most useful thing about it is how hard it is to say where the instrument ends.
Source pageLicenceLocal copy: none held
ACO-P01 · Museum object
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Set of five weighted tuning forks with pointers, Rudolph Koenig
Set of five weighted tuning forks with pointers, Rudolph Koenig. Rudolph Koenig. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Public-domain media; CC0 metadata. via Smithsonian Open Access. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
Nineteenth-century acoustics as it actually looked: graduated, adjustable, made to be measured with. This is the visual grammar this site is trying to inherit.
Source pageLocal copy: none held
ACO-P04 · Museum object
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Tonometer, Rudolph Koenig
Tonometer, Rudolph Koenig. Rudolph Koenig. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Public-domain media. via Smithsonian Open Access. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
A large graduated comparison instrument. An entire apparatus whose purpose is to answer the question 'compared with what?'
Source pageLocal copy: none held
CLK-P01 · Museum object
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Clock, Jeremias Sautter, ca. 1700, Austria
Clock, Jeremias Sautter, ca. 1700, Austria. Jeremias Sautter. ca. 1700. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. CC0 / public-domain media. via Smithsonian Open Access. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
An Austrian mechanism from around 1700 that still exists. Recurrence, repairability, and an object that has outlived everyone who ever serviced it - which is the whole argument for persistence in one exhibit case.
Source pageLocal copy: none held
MBOX-P01 · Museum object
May be mirrored - public domain / CC0Music box, Switzerland, ca. 1880
Music box, Switzerland, ca. 1880. ca. 1880. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. CC0 / public-domain media. via Smithsonian Open Access. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
Cylinder, comb, spring and governor under glass. Mechanical recurrence made visible: an object whose repetition is the whole point of it, and whose state is legible through a pane.
Source pageLocal copy: none held