IDNO

D.109909.LIN

Description

Watercolour of a Morienhur (Mongolian fiddle), now in the MAA Collections, accession number:
“Lute made of painted wood and hide, with horse hair strings and bow strings. In four pieces, all fragile.. A: neck of instrument, with elaborately carved head. B: bow. C: bridge. D: sounding box. There is a piece of wood (presumably for alteringthe sound quality of the instrument) protruding from the rear end.” [Taken from Object record D.1930.1, JD 3/2/2011]

Place

E Asia; Mongolia; China; Ulan Bator

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

King, Edith [Artist]

Collector / Expedition

Lindgren, Ethel John

Date

Collection Name

Lindgren Collection

Source

Format

Drawing

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Six watercolours were found in an Agfa paper envelope, now numbered C590/ on Shelf M.1.10.

Related Archive: Part of a photocopied typescript letter from the donor to Mary Cra'aster, dated 5/1/1987, was found in the box and notes 'From my final return from Manchuria in 1933 until Sunbourn was let just before the out-break of war, it was the main feature in my drawing-room, ['dining' replaced by 'drawing'] with a rare rose-coloured sarong (Java, 1923). I deposited it in the Museum, perhaps very informally, for the duration, and was persuaded not to remove it afterwards. I do know that it was neither a gift nor a sale. I was impressed that, at the end of the war, only a Lappish lasso slide had vanished. (I never asked for an American Indian rug with a red traditional swastika on it which caused a Jewish visitor to my college rooms acute distress long before the symbol meant much to others. [Added in pen] '& before the moths helpfully did their best'./ Before an impending revision of my will I intend to consult my son John Roe Lindgren, MA, now resident in Surrey, as to his wishes regarding the violin. I first met his father in the capital of the Mongolian People's Republic at about the time that an old man called at the two sparten rooms where I lived alone and, although we had no common language , sold me this treasure' . Another photocopied handwritten note reads, '1939.D.2 is a wrong & non-existent number. The correct number is 1930.D.1 where it is stated that the instrument was presented in 1935 & entered in 1937. However, there is no 1937 entry for it (as there are for the other Mongolian deposits). [signed [?] '1987']'/ 'Note. The son of the original owner, then Prof. of English in the University of Ulan Bator, visited Cambridge in the 1960s. He drew the shape of the original bridge for the violin, which was then copied in by Cyril Lilley in perspex, & placed in the correct position on the instrument. / [added later] (It would appear that the original bridge (plus 2 string pegs) have re-emerged in the 1986 re-boxing process).' [from MAA D.1930.1 Object record, JD 4/7/2014]