Postcards from the Edge

Here’s a timely piece of memorabilia: a postcard of our friendly neighborhood harp guitar thingy!

This is “specimen #1” of which I showed a low res image in last week’s blog, mentioning that I had it listed as part of Michigan’s Stearns Collection.   I completely forgot that Graham MacDonald – who I blogged about doing a research trip 3 weeks ago – mentioned he was heading there!  So thanks to souvenir shopper Graham, we’ve got a much better image of this thing.

Now we can see that this one also has that serpentine creature carved into the headstock (actually, it is the headstock).  I also see that it only has two subs (not a third missing).  Otherwise, it looks extremely similar to that 3^rd specimen I showed, but without the soundboard decoration.

Turning the card over, I see that someone at the museum has yet another guess: “Italian, 19^th century.” I’m not ready to put my money on that one – anyone else?

Thanks, Graham!  Safe travels and keep checking the souvenir stands on your way out.