… full of Baroque and Renaissance music, held in a lovely chapel late in the evening–the performers played shawms, traditional bagpipes, recorders, sackbutts, and a stray hurdy-gurdy.

As we walked in, the usher handed us a program that was illustrated with this strange and wonderful illustration (this is a scan from the program cover illustration).

It’s clearly snipped from a larger illustration. But it intrigues me. Is this a real thing? Or just some illustrator’s imagination run wild?

Here’s today’s Challenge:

1. Is this a real instrument? Or is it just a made-up thing? If it’s real, what would you call it?

2. Can you find the original source of this illustration? When and where was it first published?

This isn’t all that hard to do, but I had to poke around a bit to find the original. Let us know how you found the source of this somewhat fanciful illustration!

Search on!