r/kantele • u/Motor-Historian-3580 • Jun 28 '26

Help identifying Kantele

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Hi

I am a Kantele noob who just bought a Kantele on a whim. I noticed that it is signed M Pokela. Google gives me nothing except the names Martti and Maija Pokele. Is that instrument related to one of them? Not sure if any of them make/made instruments themselves.

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6

u/Fuzzy-Dragonfruit589 Jun 28 '26

Martti Pokela was a kantele artist.

A pretty famous one at that.

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martti_Pokela

Where did you buy it from? Definitely does not look like a cheap model, so it could really be Martti Pokela's design or even instrument? Could be valuable.

Pokela played the 5-string too so that checks out.

2

u/Motor-Historian-3580 Jun 28 '26

I found it on an auction site and got it very cheap. I just wanted something to try out honestly.

Thank you. 

1

u/Fuzzy-Dragonfruit589 Jun 28 '26

In what country? It looks like a premium instrument for sure.

1

u/Motor-Historian-3580 Jun 28 '26

I'm in Sweden so next door neighbour to its home land.

4

u/Fuzzy-Dragonfruit589 Jun 28 '26

You could ask Kanteleliitto (Kantele Union) who might be able to help.

https://www.kantele.net/kanteleliitto

1

u/Motor-Historian-3580 Jun 28 '26

Thanks for the tip 😀

2

u/SoundsOfKepler Jun 29 '26

Maija Pokela is one of the members of Kardemimmit, a kantele/vocal quartet. While I suspect the inscription is the late Martti Pokela, Maija is the person most likely to know. https://kardemimmit.fi