Original design based on 6th-7th Century lyre found in a warrior's grave in the Black Forest. It is red oak (the original was oak) and ebony.

I came across this rote in an old English book describing the history of stringed instruments. The photo in the book was of a reproduction, but it did give the dimensions of the original, which is what I based this on. Like the original, this one is barely 7/8" thick and hollowed out up to the slits. The tuning pins are modern; the early tuners were friction pegs, or, as on African lyres, wound around the yoke on rotating pieces of wood. No one knows how these instruments were tuned or how they were played.

The original instrument was housed in a German museum that was destroyed in World War II. The lyre was lost forever.

Personal Collection