What the hell is this thing?

[ICTGoober]

The uniform is Finnish... 4 courses of strings, with 4 strings each..... in a box.
https://imgur.com/5aHloMv

 

[Lovegun]

That's obviously 16 string cigar box mandolin. Never have seen anything like that and I'm a finnish war enthusiast.

 

[Mincer]

Well, it sits on a bookshelf. Some kind of cittern?

 

[ICTGoober]

A bunch of us over on the OLF is trying to figure it out...

 

[Artie]

It's the "travel" model of the Bo Diddley guitar.

 

[Lewguitar]

Sweden and Finland have some really cool stringed instruments. Ever hear or see a Nyckelharpa? Really cool sound!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyckelharpa

 

[ICTGoober]

We've already done all the searches over on the OLF, and we came up dry. It's a real head scratcher.