NMM 2380.  Lute (quwaytara), Algeria, late 19th century. Richly inlaid and veneered with rosewood, contrasting woods, mother-of-pearl, and bone. Rose is carved from the same wood as the table, with a six-pointed star (Star of David) and a series of interlocking circles, as seen in early-17th-century Italian lutes. This and similar instruments at the Royal College of Music, London, and the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, have more in common with the European lute, which descended from such instruments, than does the 'ud. Beede Fund, 1978.