Featured Antique Carved Gusle

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I bought this gusle today and I'm hoping you can help me figure out how old it is.

 

I don't think it is antique, but the carving is beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen one with such intricate designs.
Do you know if it is Croatian? Bosnian? Montenegran?

 

Thank you. I've been admiring it for weeks now, and I finally was able to buy it.
I'm not sure. There is no writing on it. There is something rattling in the sound box, but since the leather is already coming undone, I don't want to damage it further by trying to figure out what's inside.

 

With care, I removed the obstruction. I don't know what it was a part of, but I'll make sure not to lose it.

 

It looks like a brace. The hole suggests something else is lost, probably a peg. You need a luthier.

 

It is the bridge, the string passes through the hole:

 

I'm not real familiar with the gusle, but that is the bridge; the one string would run through it, and it would sit on top of the leather head. Yours would need a fair amount of work to be put into playable condition, but it is very pretty carving. (Sniped by AJ!!)

 

Great minds.

 

Fantastic! Thanks. I'm going to take it to an instrument repair shop to see if they can fix it for me.

 

If you wanted to make it playable, I'm not sure where you would find a luthier with gusle experience - you might check in the Croatian community if you have one nearby; some cities have a Croatian center with quite an active community.

 

Will you post the result?

 

Barn, are you still in Germany? There are bound to be a lot of people from former Yugoslavia there.

 

Unfortunately, I'm back in the States. I'll check to see if there are any Croatian luthiers near me.

If I get it repaired, I'll definitely post the results

 

Strangely, there are both metal and wooden pegs holding the rawhide in place

 

Yes, I've heard of that. I suspect the wooden pegs are the original older ones; then when the head became loose, metal nails or the like were used to tighten it, or just to replace wooden pegs that had gone missing.

 

Just for reference, here's the website of a contemporary gusle maker, showing many very intricate instruments. A lot of it is not in English, but the pictures are certainly interesting, and it includes a video on basic playing techniques that is understandable even if not in English.
I suppose there might be some possibility that you could contact him and send photos of your instrument, and he might recognize the maker, country of origin, or age; or know of a US gusle repair shop.

https://www.frula.info/gusle-prodaja/

 

Thanks! This is great. I actually have a friend who is Serbian and who can translate an English message into Serbian for me, so hopefully, he'll respond.

 

The Serbian gusla maker seems to be very.... let's say, Serbian. I hope he doesn't mind being confronted with a Croatian or Bosnian gusla. If it is Montenegran he probably won't mind.
In the 60s and 70s we used to call that specific carving in light, yellowish wood Yugoslavian, no region specified.
I saw a lot of it while on holiday in Croatia and western Bosnia, so I think that's where it originated. Gypsies were even peddling small items by the roadside in coastal Montenegro, not that it is Gypsy made.
If you can find a Croatian, you may be able to avoid any sensitive issues.