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Tombak

Date:
late 19th century
Geography:
Iran (Persia)
Culture:
Iranian (Persian)
Medium:
Various woods, bone, brass, skin
Dimensions:
Height: 18 in. (45.7 cm)
Width: 11 in. (27.9 cm)
Diameter (At widest point): 35 1/2 in. (90.2 cm)
Diameter (Of base): 31 in. (78.7 cm)
Classification:
Membranophone
Credit Line:
The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
Accession Number:
89.4.1310
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 684
Goblet shaped drums are distributed in areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, across North Africa and eastward to the Philippines. This Persian drum is elaborately decorated Khatam kari marquetry. Its surface is finely inlaid with bone, wood, and brass micro-mosaics forming stars, lozenges, and inscriptions. The poetic calligraphy at the top reads: "When it sounds, it makes everyone in the world happy."
Inscription: The upper inscription reads: "When it sounds, it makes everyone in the world happy."
Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown ; Clark Collection
Jayson Kerr Dobney, Bradley Strauchen-Scherer. Musical Instruments: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First Printing. @2015 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New York, 2015, pp. 138-139, ill.

"Musical Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (1978), Vol. XXXV, No. 3, pg. 27, ill.

Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Asia, Gallery 27. 2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1903, vol. II, pg. 70.

Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Gallery 27. 1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1901, vol. I, pg. 70.

Timelines
Iran (Persia), 1800-1900 A.D.

"Musical Instruments in the Metropolitan Museum": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 35, no. 3 (Winter, 1977–1978)
Musical Instruments: Highlights of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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