Featured Two stringed musical thing

Sold to me as African, but research suggests PAcific Islands. Thoughts please? Age?

ta!

 

Very nice, obb.
It looks Indonesian to me. There are many lute/rebab type instruments in Indonesia.
This one has similarities with the Sumatran hasapi and the Borneo sapeh, roughly the same instrument.
The hornbill (bird) could indicate Borneo, either Kalimantan or the Malaysian provinces.
The style of carving is seen in both Sumatra (Batak), and Borneo (Dayak).

There is a hole through the chest of the hornbill, maybe there was another key, for a drone string?

I don't know of any traditional Pacific string instruments (pre-Western contact), but I don't know everything. Culturally, Indonesia is a bridge between Asia and the Pacific, which can lead to confusion regarding origin of items.

 

It was this that sort of suggested PI: https://www.dugglebystephenson.com/...rumentwithcarveddecorationpossib.aspx?search=


But with your prompt I've now found this one! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/317978

Interesting how that hornbill looks like some Pacific Northwest stuff.

Thanks me dear!

 

They weren't sure, they said possibly Pacific Islands.
It is a Batak hasapi, from Sumatra. A case where Indonesian culture can easily be mistaken for Pacific.

The rider on the "PI" hasapi is a typical representation of a Batak dignitary. This is the one on the hasapi in your first link, with the animal's head looking like a Batak Naga (for comparison see last photo):


And this is a traditional statue of a Batak chief:

https://www.barbier-mueller.ch/en/2020/04/02/a-batak-horseman/

Naga head on my Batak storage vessel:

 

And some of the carving is also somewhat like New Zealand Maori. All Pacific and Indo-Pacific.
There have been trade and other contacts between many of the Indo-Pacific and Pacific islands for thousands of years. The NW Coast nations also had far more overseas contacts than people previously thought.

 

Adding that although nothing has really been proven, there are some astonishing similarities between NW Coast native cultures and art, and those of the Ainu, and of the Maori, to name just two.

 

The ancestors of most Indonesians originally came from Taiwan. If the Ainu already lived in Japan around the same time, they would have been neighbours.

 

‘Two stringed musical thing’
Lol, straight from the KSW school of describing things

 

In this case it got the idea across - "what's this whatchamcallit"!

 

‘Two stringed musical thing’

OP is to be appreciated publicly...for not adding a Y to thing!

 

Here is an Etsy listing of a kacapi (hasapi) with a bird at the top similar to yours. The seller says it is from the 1930s and was made for the tourist trade.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/111888...how_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

 

Yes, it is likely obb's is also made for the tourist trade, with that abundant carving. Traditional ones are less decorated.

 

Hey, the description worked!

Thank you for all the links, folks.

aj, any idea on the age of mine please?

 

nineteen something

 

Mid-century.

 

Many thanks!

 

Kutiyapi from the Philippines ??? Moro stringed instrument ......

Kutiyapi - Wikipedia

National Museum of the Philippines - As we continue to commemorate the Linggo ng Musikang Pilipino, the #NationalMuseumPH shares another musical instrument from our National Ethnographic Collection. Yesterday, we featured the different gongs in the country and today, we will be sharing our collection of boat lutes. According to ethnomusicologist Hans Brandeis, there are at least 23 different types of Philippine boat lutes, which can be found among at least 36 different ethnolinguistic groups. A boat lute (called kutiyapi/kudyapi/kutyapi among the Maranao, Maguindanao, Higaonon, Bukidnon and Arumanen Manobo, kudjapi among the Alangan Mangyan, kuglung among the Ata-Manobo and Bagobo, kudlung among the Mandaya, kuglung among the Blaan; hegelung among the Tboli; and kudlungan/kusiyapi among the Pala'wan or Palawano) is a two-stringed musical instrument wherein one string is used for the melody and the other one produces the drone. It is usually carved out of one solid log of wood and vary in designs that in most cases, it is easy to determine from which ethnolinguistic group a specific lute came from making them important “cultural identifiers.” The symbolic meaning of the design is not pertaining to boats but rather to animals, namely crocodiles, monitor lizards, horses, roosters and herons as well as of the human body and to some parts of the royal houses like the panolong (house beam extensions). Before the Maranao started to carve their lutes into panolong designs, they first used the crocodile which symbolizes political and royal power and is deeply rooted into the Maranao mythology, darangen. Based on the different accounts, boat lutes had been around the country even before the Spanish occupation. They are still prominently used in Mindanao and Palawan and are usually played solo as a form of self-entertainment. The Alangan and Iraya Mangyan of Mindoro were also noted as boat lute players, but this tradition have become extinct in the early 1970s. Unlike traditional bamboo tube zithers which are exclusively played by women, boat lutes can be played by both men and women. There are different techniques in playing the lutes: in a sitting position, standing and dancing or while squatting on the floor. However, lute players like the Tboli play their hegelung in all kinds of strange positions like: holding them far away from their body, behind their back, on their neck, while dancing, spinning round and turning on their own axis. The kudyapi is played with a plectrum or pick, usually made out of rattan, bamboo or a piece of plastic cut from a cup or container, and tied to the index or middle finger of the player. Palawan (Palawano, Tagbanwa, Batak) and some Lumad groups (Agusan Manobo and Subanen) play with their bare fingers. Bukidnon Manobo elders believe that the people learned to play the kudyapi by listening to the spirits dwelling on the balete (Ficus stipulosa) tree, who play the kudyapi, pulala (bamboo flute), and dayuday/dayuray (violin made from coconut shell) at night. The strings of the kudyapi are made from bislig (vines), abaca, rattan and other plant fibers that are found in their surroundings. The frets that are positioned under the melody string are made out of clots of beeswax as its base in which strips and pieces of bamboo, coconut shell, fernwood or buffalo horn are inserted. Aside from being played for self-entertainment, the kudyapi is also used during courtship activities among the Lumad and the Bangsamoro groups. Along with the kubing (jaw harp or Jew’s harp), they are referred to by the Bangsamoro as “speaking” instruments. It is played in association with the entourage of the datu or sultan among the Maguindanao. Manlilikha ng Bayan Samaon Sulaiman from Maguidanao, a dedicated player of the kutyapi, have mastered the different forms and styles, such as the dinaladay (introduction), linapu (borrowed tunes), minuna (traditional), binalig (modern) among others. Masino Intaray, a Palawano musician and storyteller and conferered as Manlilikha ng Bayan is also a master of the kusyapi through the bagit, (facebook.com)