Five-string tar, wood, animal skin membrane, animal gut, ivory inlay, painted decoration, Iran, 1800-76

Tar (تار), originally with five strings (now missing). The waisted wooden body is covered with animal-skin membrane at the front, the membrane now badly damaged. The rest of the body is painted in colours and gold with ornamental patterns surrounding oval vignettes of musicians and, in one case, a seated couple in an embrace. The wooden neck, painted at the back, is inlaid with ivory and equipped with frets of gut (many missing). The wooden headstock, also painted, has four surviving pegs.

Robert Murdoch Smith, acting as an agent of the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), purchased this object in Tehran in 1875 as part of a large purchase from Jules Richard, a Frenchman resident in Iran. The price was £1/16s/00d. At this time, it was incorrectly described as a "sitar".

775-1876