Portugal
Unknown

Wood, metal, bone
ca. Early-Mid 20th century
Length: 14.5 in
Strings – Lutes – Guitars

This is a vintage, beautifully decorative Portuguese folk 12-string (6 course) fado guitar, featuring a scroll head known as the Lisbon style fado guitar (guitarras de fado).  The neck of this small mandolin-size fado guitar supports a bone finger board on a wooden frame and twelve extended tuners called Preston tuners at the top for tuning each of the 12-metal strings.  Preston tuners are also known as peacock, fan, or watchkey tuners.

The Portugal ‘fado‘ guitar is a descendant of the Medieval citole, based on evidence of its use in Portugal since the thirteenth century (then known as ‘cítole’ in Portuguese) amongst troubadour and minstrel circles and in the Renaissance period, although initially it was restricted to noblemen in court circles. Later it became popular, and references have been found to citterns  (one of the few metal-strung instruments known from the Renaissance period) being played in the theater, in taverns and in barbershops during the seventeenth and eighteenth century in particular. 

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_guitar