Yueqin or "moon guitar". The table and back of red-brown varnished wood. The ribs, in four sections, of darker wood. The neck of similar colour forming a curved peg-box for four pegs terminating in a rectangular wooded plated with a six-lobed boss. Four fluted hexagonal tapered pegs. Four square frets of dark wood on neck, and four rounded pegs of ivory on table. Grooved triangular nut of brown wood. The table decorated with a pair of applied motifs of flower design and a similar formal winged, bat-like motif between the highest two frets, all of dark brown wood. A sheet of snake-skin on table immediately above the semicircular glued-on stringholder. Lacks one string and one neck-fret. Snake-skin lifting. Joins opening in back, heavily varnished, otherwise in good condition. Small panel of Chinese inscription on back.
