Often overlooked in a case in the British Museum’s wonderful gallery of mediaeval treasures is this, the only surviving Citole, a very fashionable plucked string instrument of around 1300.

Carved from a single piece of wood, in England, and is an astonishing demonstration of virtuoso carving and rich imagination, and a vivid record of the courtly arts that then flourished in this country.

The gifting of the Citole between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley and its conversion to a violin demonstrate how the instrument was held in high regard some 250 years after it was made. The value placed on it was not inspired by the expense of the raw material nor by its virtue as a musical instrument (the citole was distinctly out of date by about 1400) but by the extraordinary richness and quality of the carving that covers its neck and sides.

(Source: theenglishladye, via thatisfuckingkawaii)