Lute; tanbur

Tanbur, long-necked lute. A partially-legible inscription in Cyrillic characters at the base of the neck reads: 'USTA USMON UGLI SIDIK UCHUN' ('For Sidik who is the son of Usta Usmon'). The pear-shaped body and neck are are made of of white mulberry (Morus alba) wood, with inlay of blue, black and white plastic in geometrical patterns. The sound table has three small elliptically drilled soundholes, and two other smaller soundholes on either side of the M-shaped bridge. Four wire strings with a sounding length of 994mm. Seventeen frets of gut or animal tendon encircle the neck. There is one half fret of wood for the upper strings 620mm from the top of the neck, two wooden frets at the base of the neck and two wooden frets on the soundtable. The tuning pegs have rectangular heads. The tanbur is played with a brass plectrum, nahun (Horniman Museum number 2000.12.2).