A lute is a stringed musical instrument that includes a body and a neck which serves both has a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body.
The lute family includes not only short-necked plucked lutes such as the lute, oud, pipa, guitar, citole, gittern, mandore, rubab, and gambus and long-necked plucked lutes such as banjo, tanbura, bağlama, bouzouki, veena, theorbo, archlute, pandura, sitar, Tanbur, setar, but also bowed instruments such as the Yaylı tambur, rebab, erhu, and entire family of viols and violins.
Lutes apparently rose in ancient Mesopotamia prior to 3100 B.C. or were brought to the area by ancient Semitic tribes. The lutes were pierced lutes, long-necked lutes with a neck made from a stick that went into a carved or turtle-shell bowl, the top covered with skin, and strings tied to the neck and instrument’s bottom. Reference: Wikipedia
A HARMONY ROY SMECK VITA-UKE c.1927 Lute-shaped bound spruce top featuring twin soundholes cut in the shape of seals, mahogany back and sides, rosewood fretboard with mother of pearl dot markers, mahogany neck.
Sold for US$ 484 (£ 374) inc. premium at Bonham’s in 2020
A THEORBO LUTE OR CHITARRONE AFTER GIOVANNI TESLER, ANCONA, 17TH CENTURY 14 courses, the bowl back of alternating ribs of yew sapwood and yew heartwood, with ebonized pegbox and fingerboard
Sold for GBP 25,000 at Christie’s in 2016
Vintage Chinese Carved Pipa / Lute. Mixed woods and composite construction, head with carved figural bat, pegs with carved bone finials
Sold for $100 at Amero Auctions in 2020
Lute 200–500 Roman/Byzantine Strings ran from the top of this instrument’s long neck to the end of the sound box, which has indentations (called the waist) on its sides. The musician’s right hand probably plucked the strings while the left hand used the lower portion of the neck as a fingerboard. This lute is one of only four of the type to survive; the indentations on the sound box suggest that it may be an ancestor of the guitar.
Reference: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lute-guitar, Ludwig Reisinger, Vienna, c.1870. Back of nine rosewood ribs with maple spacers; spruce soundboard with carved and sawn pearwood rose; black lacquered neck and head with shield finial and six ivory and brass machine heads
Reference: Museum of Applied Art and Sciences
Lute body with modern, reconstructed soundboard and neck, but without stringing. Wtih a turned ivory peg to which a neck strap could be attached.
Instead of being composed of ribs of wood, as would have been more normal, the body of this lute is made up of a mosaic of woods forming a star pattern and held in position by ribs of parchment, glued to it from the inside. Marx (or Max) Unverdorben was of German origin and made lutes in Venice, where he is thought to have been a pupil of Laux Maler, the greatest luthier of his day. Unverdorben was active from about 1550 until 1580, and one of his lutes was included in the 1556 inventory of Raymund Fugger, a member of the famous banking family of Augsburg.
Reference: © Victoria and Albert Museum
