A small tanbur, perhaps a child’s instrument, of wood stained black, Afghanistan. The table with twelve small sound-holes. The body, back and neck with inlaid decoration in white plastic in patterns formed of birds, flowers and dots, with punched decoration of dots and circles in red. Black mastic holds the white decorative elements in place on the neck. Four T-shaped pegs for wire strings at the top of the neck. Five similar pegs are inserted in the side of the neck, with each string running over a small bone nut. All the strings run over the top of a small plastic bridge and tied to a bone end-pin at the base of the body.
Collected by Sir Hugh Cortazzi from a village in Afghanistan when he was posted to the British embassy in Kabul in 1977.
