Laux Maler Explained

Laux Maler or Laux Mahler or Lucas Maller (1485–1552) was a renaissance luthier specialising in lutes, from Füssen, Germany. He worked in Bologna, Italy.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Lutes made by Laux Maler were highly prized by musicians in the seventeenth century. In April 1645 Constantijn Huygens tried to obtain a nine rib Laux Maler lute from Jacques Gaultier, a lutenist at the court of Charles I of England. Gaultier said there were only fifty extant, six in London, of medium size and not suitable to accompany a singer. Soon after Gaultier found one of the larger size, recently rebuilt in London by a Master Nichols. Huygens had the lute sent to him on approval, but did not buy it. In 1649 Charles I gave Gaultier another Laux Maler lute, formerly belonging to the royal lutenist John Ballard. Gaultier offered this lute to Huygens, and sent it to The Hague but could not secure an expert recommendation for it from their mutual friend Mary Woodhouse.^[9]

Notes and References

1. http://www.lautenvonholst.de/fotos13.html Nachbau einer 7-chörigen Renaissance-Laute nach Laux Maler
2. http://www.mimo-db.eu/MIMO/infodoc/ged/view.aspx?eid=OAI_GNM_DE_660877 Dokumentation einer erhaltenen Laute
3. Web site: Renaissance Lutes. Niskanen Lutes. 2019-03-20.
4. Web site: LUTE. The Dutch Luthier. 7 April 2016 . 2019-03-20.
5. Web site: The Füssen school, part 1. Tarisio. 2019-03-20.
6. Web site: Lute makers | Guitar Makers | Vihuelas Baroque Guitars Archlutes Chitarroni Theorbos Orpharions Lutemakers. lutesandguitars.co.uk. 2019-03-20.
7. Web site: Luth, Laux Maler, Bologne, entre 1529 et 1552, E.2005.3.1, vue de face. Anglès, Jean-Marc. 2012-12-29 . Europeana.
8. Willibald Leo Frhr v. Lütgendorff: Die Geigen und Lautenmacher vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. 4. Auflage, 1. Band. Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt A.G., Frankfurt, 1922.
9. Matthew Spring, 'A Goose Among Swans', The Lute in the Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle, 2016), pp. 131, 137-40: Lisa Jardine, Temptation in the Archives (UCL: London, 2015), pp. 61-3.