Wooden sansa with 12 metal keys, incised geometric decoration and string on back

Item

Title

Wooden sansa with 12 metal keys, incised geometric decoration and string on back

Creator

Creator Unrecorded

Subject

Music

Description

Sansa or thumb piano in the form of a rectangular wooden board with raised edges. It has 12 metal keys or tines, set on a raised wooden box and attached to the board with metal wire. The board is decorated with incised patterns. On the front below the tines is an etched block of eight squares with crosses in their centres, and a line of six circles on the bottom edge. On the back there are rows of circles at the top and bottom, and a square cross, with a circle at the end of each arm, in the centre. There is a short plant fibre string on the back threaded through two holes. At the bottom there is a thick metal wire similar to a large staple with three cylindrical metal beads threaded on it.

Publisher

Making African Connections

Date

c.1930

Type

PhysicalObject

Format

Wood; Plant

Identifier

ETH.ANG3.528
A37/528

Source

Antoinette and Diana Powell-Cotton
1937

Space/Place

Angola
Africa

Rights

© The Powell-Cotton Trust