This violoncello, was made in Schönbach, Germany, around 1880. It is made of a two-piece table of spruce, two-piece back of maple with fine, irregular horizontal figure, ribs of similar maple, neck, pegbox and scroll of plain maple with brass machine tuning mechanism, and an opaque orange-brown varnish.

On page 54 of the 1882 J. Howard Foote musical instrument catalog is the heading: “VIOLONCELLOS, or Bass Viols... German manufacture, with patent heads: No. 6013 Best quality very fine model, excellent in every respect, brass patent head... $24.00 each.”

To give a sense of the Foote sales of bowed string instruments, there are 13 categories of cellos in grades from $10.80 to $55.00 each, while in the larger violin group, 74 grades are listed from $16.00 per dozen to $210.00 for a “Perfect copy of Stradivarius.” Only four viola grades are described under the heading: “VIOLAS. Or Tenor Viols, also called Altos by the French,” from $4.80 to $15.00 each.