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Yueqin

Alternate name(s)

Short-neck box lute
Ch'in
Gekkin

Date1910 ca.

Place MadeChina, Asia

Serial No.none

SignedPrinted in red ink on the table, only partially-legible. The two middle characters may be translated as "lucky."
Markingsnone
DescriptionThe table and back consist of two flat discs of softwood (wutong wood(?)- firmania platanifolia). The ribs are a circular shell of the same wood, covered with a hardwood veneer in two sections. A short neck of the same hardwood extends to a pegbox in the form of a rectangular frame, open at the middle, with eight lateral holes for four perforate conical fluted pegs. An upper bridge is attached to the neck below the pegs. The finial flares backwards towards a scroll, consisting of a single whorl carved from a separate piece of wood.
The instrument was originally built with ten (now nine) bamboo frets of triangular section and of graduated height: from 12mm. (the fret nearest the pegs) to 7mm. (the fret nearest the lower bridge). Two frets are glued to the neck and seven (originally eight) to the table.
A simicircular hardwood bridge with two pairs of diagonal holes through which the strings are tied, is fixed to the table, and lies on the same plane.
DimensionsOver all length: 600 mm
Over all width: 350 mm
Sounding length of strings: 347 mm
Height of upper bridge: 13 mm
Height of lower bridge: 9 mm
Body circumference: 1140 mm
Body height: 40 mm
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.

Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979

Object number05638

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