The Bowed Psaltery is a lovely little instrument. Compact, robust, not too difficult to tune and play, and it has a delightful tone. There's just one problem with it. Re-enactors have a habit of carrying one round and displaying it proudly as a genuine medieval instrument. The truth is -

It was invented by a German schoolteacher as a cheap and useful instrument for teaching children the rudiments of music. It was later taken up by folk musicians, and it was often sold at country fairs. It's not medieval. Please don't be misled by a large number of people on the Web who would really like someone to have invented it in the thirteenth century. It does look sort of medieval, and they had psalteries then, and they must have thought of bowing one, mustn't they? Well, no. There are NO convincing illustrations of a medieval bowed psaltery, and there are no literary references to one either. If anyone comes up with such evidence, I'll happily eat my words, but no-one has yet.

It is a nice instrument, though. If anyone wants one, I'm not averse to constructing an attractive example for an appropriate quantity of filthy lucre.