Very strange looking mandolin on eBay Italy

[Peter K]

https://www.ebay.it/itm/Mandolino/12...YAAOSw~15eVj8r

Over the years on eBay we all have seen a number of diverse string/plucked musical instruments being mistakenly identified as "mandolins". However, the above mandolin ad from Italy takes the cake in that regard.

One good thing about it though is that I do not think that "mandolin" requires much work to make I playable.
The other good thing is that it comes with a bow, just for those times when one gets tired of plucking.

[Bertram Henze]

Apparently, Marco Polo brought that back from his travels to China. Despite its archeological value, there must be a reason for the bargain price...

[DavidKOS]

That's a Balkan folk fiddle called a gusle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusle

[Mark Gunter]

Thanks for that, David. Very interesting!

[Peter K]

That's a Balkan folk fiddle called a gusle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusle

Bravo cumpa, stu strumentu si chiama "gusle", and it is used mainly for performance of Balkan blue grass music, such as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YmEMKiGZhk