lavta

A musical instrument called a lavta. The body resembles the form of an Arabic or Turkish lute with a pear-shaped body made of many alternating dark and light wooden ribs on the bowl. The edge of the bowl is decorated with a border of inlaid dark wood and bone or ivory. It has a long guitar-like neck and eight metal strings. The bridge has mustache-like ends and a carved rosette framed with an inlaid border of dark wood and bone or ivory. It is also decorated with inlaid floral sprigs in tortoise shell on ivory or bone pentagon-shaped cartouches. The pegbox bends backwards, like a lute. There are four round tuning pegs on each side of the open tuning head. It is played with a long thin plectrum (missing). A twisted length of yellow wool with a green tassel hangs from the pegbox.