Hungarian Cimbalom

The cimbalom's origins date as far back as 720 AD. Cantos' cimbalom is believed to have been built during the early 20th Century by Vencel Joszef Schunda in Budapest, Hungary.  Schunda advanced the design of the cimbalom by adding a string dampening mechanism and in 1890 it was officially adopted as Hungary's national instrument.  This cimbalom was donated by Mary Maxim in loving memory of Anna and András Maxim

Pop Culture Reference

Zoltán Kodály, Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Frank Zappa and Louis Andriessen have all made a great use of cimbalom in their works.
The Cimbalom was used in the film scores for In the Heat of the Night,  The Black Stallion , The Ipcress File,  Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.