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- => Gear Lust => Topic started by: Rick on June 04, 2014, 08:02:14 PM

Title: harmonica reed plate from the civil war, currently $20 on ebay
Post by: Rick on June 04, 2014, 08:02:14 PM
This would look good in your man cave!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151310902157?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
Title: Re: harmonica reed plate from the civil war, currently $20 on ebay
Post by: Gorfalamu on June 08, 2014, 02:24:56 PM
I ran this past the Slidemeisters forum and got this wonderful response from the encylopedic John Broecker:

Hello, Gorfalamu.

The reed plate in the photo may or may not be a USA Civil War Relic. It's the reed plate of a Richter-Knittlinger
system octave harp. The e-bay ad suggests that the reed plate was dug from a Civil War site, but doesn't claim
that the found objects are of Civil War vintage.

It's a guess that it's a reed plate from a Hohner #1748 Concert or a similar model made from circa 1860 to 1890s(?).
Hohner didn't export harmonicas to the USA until after the Civil War, 1866 or later.
 
In 1897, the Marine Band Concert #1896-C was patented, the same model as the #1748, with Marine Band covers.
Later, Hohner's #63 Up to Date Surprise and #483 Marine Band Echo were copies of the earlier model #1748.
All of those Hohners had 2 tabs per side of the covers.

The #1748 and the others listed above were like the Hohner Auto-Valve, without the valves. The Hohner models
are the only known concert (octave) harps with the Knittlinger setup, and 2 tabs on each side of the covers.

The nail holes for the double tabs are seen on the antique reed plate. The Knittlinger system was introduced
by the Friedrich Hotz company (1828-1906) in Knittlingen, Germany, circa 1860, maybe earlier.  There are
no known Hotz Richter octave harps with double tabs on the covers.

The Knittlinger system has one Richter diatonic scale on one reed plate, 2 reeds per chamber; and the other
reed plate has another Richter diatonic scale, 2 reeds per chamber. The other scale is an octave lower or higher
than the first reed plate.

Hohner bought the Hotz and Pohl harmonica companies in 1906, but continued using the Hotz and Pohl names
on some of Hohner's low-priced models, through World War II, and some models into the 1980s.

Best Regards

JB
Title: Re: harmonica reed plate from the civil war, currently $20 on ebay
Post by: Rick on June 09, 2014, 06:10:37 PM
Hi Gorf,

What amazing research!

 Thanks!

  Rick
Title: Re: harmonica reed plate from the civil war, currently $20 on ebay
Post by: Gorfalamu on June 11, 2014, 12:04:09 PM
John Broeker has an amazing knowledge of the harmonica's history and production.  He regularly regales Slidemeister with his in-depth reviews of who made what when and where and is the go-to guy when it comes to arcane stuff like this.
G