Ko-Tze
Unknown Artist
late 19th century
Medium
Gourd, wood
Dimensions
Diam. 3/4 in.
Classification
Aerophone-Whistle Flute-whistle
Culture
Chinese
Department
Musical Instruments
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
Accession Number
89.4.1687
Art Historical Context
Ko-Tze is a charming late-19th-century Chinese whistle flute, classified as an aerophone and fashioned from gourd and wood. Barely three-quarters of an inch across, this miniature instrument demonstrates the skill of traditional makers who shaped humble natural materials into playable objects. Its compact form would have produced a clear, piercing tone when air was directed through the whistle mechanism, making it well suited for signaling or intimate musical moments. In Chinese musical traditions, gourd-based instruments have long held cultural resonance because the plant’s hollow shape natu...