Jew's Harp

[Silas]

Re: Jew's Harp

I've owned a few harps so I've got an interest in this thread. Stay away from the harps found at reenactments and NPS stores. They are dull, dull, dull. Go to a quality music store where you can find harps in various keys in the neighborhood of twenty five bucks. Here's a link to an inventory search of items found at a store near me : http://larkinthemorning.com/Search.a...&page_number=1

Please note that this thread started with promise, but it is beginning to degrade into idle speculation. More sources and less speculation will be of value to others who have been thinking about recreating that strange but pleasing sound.

Further word of warning : instruments like the jew's harp and bones are gateway drugs to other instruments.

[lojafan]

Re: Jew's Harp

I can concur with Mark's advise. I bought one from NPS gift store and they are cheap, cheap, cheap! Plus it's so plain looking, nothing like the one pictured above. I would much rather have one like that, then a peice of aluminum and tin.

[Mcouioui]

Re: Jew's Harp

Vol. IV Civil War Collector's Encyclopedia to Francis A. Lord

Jew's Harp page 107 :

Because they are small and inexpensive, the Jew's harp was a favorite with many soldiers to pass away the time in camp. Shown here are examples from both armies.

The unusually large iron Jew's harp was carried by a soldier from Massachusetts. It is 4 1/2 inches long and 3 3/8 inches wide in the widest part. This Jew's harp is rather crudely made and has a steel spring.

The Confederate Jew's harp _ unlike the one described above _ was dug. It is 3 1/2 inches long and 3 3/8 inches wide in the widest part. This is of iron and was dug up in Confederate Fort Fisher on the Cape Fear peninsula, North Carolina. A land-sea battle was fought there January 6-15, 1865.

Having belonged a soldier of the Massachusetts.


Found near Winchester Virginia, exposed to Gettysburg


We find these models on civilwarantiqueshop

http://www.civilwarantiqueshop.com/pi6.htm

[Danny]

Re: Jew's Harp

...Please note that this thread started with promise, but it is beginning to degrade into idle speculation...

My opinion only: speculation yes, idle speculation no. This is a simple little folk instrument, a musical whimsy, not a depot issue. It's appropriate to consider context. There's no physical reason a jaw harp should be imprinted as a horseshoe (item 8098 above), but it is a good indication of period personality. That we today can still relate to that whimsy is notable, and a valid observation.

Idle speculation would be to ignore the way that folks think, feel and act, then as now; never to factor those in.

Dan Wykes

"...I think that the work of amateur historian, it is to look at an object or the touch, and to see through him - William Miconnet"

[Mcouioui]

Re: Jew's Harp

We go maybe towards the irrelevant, but you have the other examples of instruments of period, inspired by the everyday life of makers?
I know that many instruments of period here in Europe made by sailors by example offer a great numbers of peculiarities connected to the navy and to the sea, it is there only an example.
We have the case of many objects (instruments and other) during the great war of that we name here "Trenches Art" is it the case for instruments of the CW?

[Silas]

Re: Jew's Harp

My opinion only: speculation yes, idle speculation no. [ ] Idle speculation would be to ignore the way that folks think, feel and act, then as now; never to factor those in.

Dan Wykes

Not quite. Per an online dictionary :

Spec·u·late (spky-lt)

v. spec·u·lat·ed, spec·u·lat·ing, spec·u·lates
v. intr. :

1. To meditate on a subject; reflect.
2. To engage in a course of reasoning often based on inconclusive evidence.

v. tr. :

To assume to be true without conclusive evidence

Thesaurus :

Speculate - Verb

1. speculate - to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds
2. speculate - talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way and with an element of doubt or without sufficient reason to reach a conclusion

Idle speculation is like tuna fish. The adjective in front is another word which means the same thing as the noun that follows. My error was using two words together when only one was necessary.

Please keep the discussion fact based. The photos are great. Sources about the photos are also great. Other research about harps is further invited. However, don't let this thread get filled with idle discussion, or the thread may get tossed into the garbage like an old tuna sandwich.

[Danny]

Re: Jew's Harp

Not quite... Per an online dictionary :
Idle speculation is like tuna fish... My error was using two words together when only one was necessary... don't let this thread get filled with [I]idle discussion...

To be fair there's also the word "idle" in the dictionary. As an adjective it means not working or active; as a verb to pass time doing nothing; or as a noun the state or quality of being idle, none of which characterizes our little discussion about jaw harps to this point.

We've been having a valid discussion on the shape and decoration of found objects from the CW, a reflection of period views which we can, as folks ourselves, relate to. I agree though we can't make too much of it beyond that.

Dan Wykes

[Mcouioui]

Re: Jew's Harp

I am personally fascinated by the soul of the object, instrument, which comes to him so much his material as from the one who works the material to create the instrument.
I am not a musician, but the relation between the musician and his instrument, fascinate me, it my fascination all more great if the musician is the manufacturer and it also fascinates me if the manufacturer is not a musician but puts in the instrument the other think than the music as it is maybe the case in the jaw harp (item 8098 above),
Where from my fascination for the other instruments of period which would have followed the same fate.

[Deuceswilde]

Re: Jew's Harp

A little late, but back on track.

Here is an ad for the "dug" artifact horseshoe pattern jews harp. The only problem is that it is found on page 531 of the 1897 Sears & Roebuck catalog.

While it is possible that this was a continually produced item from the mid to late 19th century, no evidence has been shown as of yet to confirm.

Are there any photos, ads, drawings or documentation of this pattern to confirm that it was PEC or even available during or before the ACW?

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Jew's Harp

In reading the previous posts, I completely got lost in the discussion. I think the original poster was looking for documentation for the jaw harp being used by soldiers in the CW. I found several mentions of soldiers playing the jaw harp in accounts and the Sanitary Commission sent them to the hospitals so the patients had something to occupy their minds while they recuperated.

The jaw harp that we sell on our website is like the one in the simpler one shown in Lord's. It is also like the ones aboard the Steamboat Arabia that sunk in 1856.

[David Swarens]

Re: Jew's Harp

Hello.

Another early, 19th century, name ( in English) which this fine instrument goes by is "Trump," and a name by which it is sometimes still known in tradtional use.

The late folklorist and musician Mike Seeger often used this term.

So keep your eyes open for that one too!

And of course there are many other names in other languages, cultures and countries.

The instrument was among the trade items carried by Lewis and Clark on their "voyage of discovery.

Yours,
David Swarens