Concert zither

Alternate name(s)

Alpine zither
Zither, Alpine, fretboard, accompaniment, bass, and sub-bass strings

Date1920 ca.

Place MadeMunich, Bavaria, Germany, Europe

ModelSalzburg form

Serial No.none

SignedSoundhole label: rectangular paper label; image of a monk centered on label; monk flanked on either side by royal lions with crowns and decorative floral scrolling; above monk in black script printed: Monachium; below monk in black script printed: AEMarkingsnoneDescriptionStrings: 34 metal strings (19 missing); 5 melody strings; 29 accompaniment strings
Body:
Top: spruce with rosewood veneer
Back: black-painted spruce
Sides: hardwood with rosewood veneer; grain running vertically; 3 ply maple and dark hardwood purfling bordering sides
Edging: 3 ply maple and dark hardwood purfling around soundboard; brown-stained pearwood binding
Soundhole: elongated oval soundhole centered on soundboard; 3 ply maple and dark hardwood purfling around soundhole; brown-stained pearwood binding on inner edge of soundhole
Fretboard: black-stained pearwood with 30 nickel silver frets including zero fret; mother-of-pearl dot position markings behind fifth, ninth, twelfth, and seventeenth frets; single mother-of-pearl dot position marking behind fifteenth fret; eighteenth fret three quarters length, twenty third fret half length, twenty fifth fret quarter length
Nut: black-painted hardwood with black-painted brass wire saddle
Bridge: black-painted beech; black-painted brass wire saddle underneath accompaniment strings; black-painted brass wire saddle underneath melody strings; slots cut into hand rest where strings wrap over end of instrument and attach to hitchpins
Tuning Pins: 34 nickel-plated steel tuning pins (1 missing)
Table-top Rests: 3 ball-shaped bone rests on back with steel needle points (rest on curvilinear side missing with removal hole)
DimensionsBody: 545 mm long, 288 mm wide
Fretboard: 350 mm long, 55 mm wide
Melody string vibrating length: 412 mm
Highest chord string vibrating length: 442 mm
Lowest chord string vibrating length: 477 mm
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.

Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979

Object number02253

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