Painting and varnishing finished!

It took quite some time to repaint and varnish the zither. Here is the result.

The back

I filled the cracks with wood putty, sanded them down, applied a new layer of black paint, and several layers of blank varnish.

before:	after:

nice and shiny:

The front

I glued and filled the cracks and sanded them down very carefully. The idea was to keep the old appearance of the zither, but stil giving it some protection from further decay.
With a very thin new layer of black paint, the gold decorations stayed visible, and I finished it off with several layers of blank varnish.

before:	after:

from the side:

Next: the tuning pins and the strings...