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Zither
19th century
Object Place: France
Medium/Technique
Maple,spruce
Dimensions
Length 73.8 cm, width 22.7 cm, height 7.6 cm (Length 29 1/16 in., width 8 15/16 in., height 3 in.)
Credit Line
Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection
Accession Number17.1775
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsMusical Instruments
ClassificationsMusical instruments – Chordophones
DescriptionA rectangular deep box with slanting, molded ends on four ivory feet; bottom and sides of maple, sound-board of pine. Light yellow-brown varnish. The sound-board has two sunk rosetted sound-holes. An ebony finger-board with twenty-four ivory frets. Lower end frontal fastening of strings; buttons at the lower end, square-headed steel tuning pins. Four stopped strings passing over metal strips serving as the saddle and a nut. Thirteen open strings pass over two ebony bridges with thin metal strips on the top. The edges of the sound-board and of the sound-holes are inlaid in black and white.
ProvenanceFrancis W. Galpin (1858-1945), Hatfield Regis, England; 1916, sold by Francis W. Galpin to William Lindsey (1858-1922), Boston, Massachusetts; 1916, gift of William Lindsey, in memory of his daughter, Leslie Lindsey Mason, to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 5, 1916)