Jew's Harp

[Charles Kaiser]

Hallo Kameraden,
does someone now something about the use of this item in the civil war? I think this very old instrument, which was easily to transport, because it made of steal, and easier to play like an Harmonica. I think this was very common in the former times and not mostly limited to the "traditional bavarian Music" like in our days.

P.s I have searched on this forum, but I couldn't find something

[DocReynolds]

The Jew's Harp, Jaw Harp, or whatever of the hundreds of names you can use is old. Certaninly older than our era. (I did some research about 2 years ago). It would have been in existence during the Revolution, although I cannot say if it was here in the States during that era in any a[ppreciable numebrs).

It would have been easy to get, and probably easier than the harmonica (which comes into use over here in the 1850s from what I've read and heard) because it would be cheaper.

Having said that I can't say I've read lots of accounts of "the boys gettin' together with their jew's harp's bones and whistles. " to have a "sing"...Of course, I know that tin whistles and harmonicas were around too, but letters and diaries don;t talk about "the great Tin whistle competition last night" any more than they mention jews harps.

If I can find the sites I accessed befor, I'll let you know.

Pete Bedrossian
150thNY/3rd NC

[lukegilly13]

Here's a nice read:
http://www.jewsharpguild.org/history.html

[Raven]

What I know, back then most of them were made of wood and was invented during the 1600's. Im sure some soldiers would have had one of these. Correct me if im wrong.

[Mcouioui]

Charles, this is one CW harmonica image, you will notice that he has not exactly the same face as one modern harmonica, I too much looked on events of the lads which played very well... But with a modern instrument.
I hid somewhere in my computer a photo of Jew Harp I look and post here

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2176/cwr113dsoldiersharmonic.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/cwr113dsoldiersharmonic.jpg/)

[Mcouioui]

It is this model for which you look?
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/4624/jewsharpcivilwar.jpg (http://img693.imageshack.us/i/jewsharpcivilwar.jpg/)

[Charles Kaiser]

Thanks a lot for both Images, William. I've contacted a Harmonica Museum in Germany, but they had no adequate Images of periodical Instruments, and the modern Jew Harps are not so ornamentical. I try to find one on Fleamarkets!

Richter worked arround 1825, and was the Inventor of the Konfiguration of Harmonicas, which is still in our days Present in most of the Harmonicas

[Hank Trent]

It is this model for which you look?

Is it just me, or is part of the jew's harp supposed to look like a horseshoe? You can see rudimentary cauks and slots for the nails. Can't really judge the size but I don't think it really was made from a horse or pony shoe, but it looks like someone put in some work to make it resemble one.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[J.H.Berger]

It does look like a horse shoe indeed. Christof why don't you forge one yourself?

[Mcouioui]

Is it just me, or is part of the jew's harp supposed to look like a horseshoe? You can see rudimentary cauks and slots for the nails. Can't really judge the size but I don't think it really was made from a horse or pony shoe, but it looks like someone put in some work to make it resemble one.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com


Yes you are right, that looks like that a lot i found this photo on Internet, it is given as dating the CW period, what is sure it is that Of Jew harps are old, we find already wooden in the 16th century and there had certainly in metal in the 17th. century, to see this picture of 1621 of Dirck van BABUREN (1590-1624)
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9544/jewsharp.jpg (http://img6.imageshack.us/i/jewsharp.jpg/)

[lojafan]

It's very doubtful that that jew harp was made from a horse shoe. If it were it would be very awkward to hold, as a cheap reproduction jew harp is already awkward to hold and 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a horse shoe. It's most likely just make to look as if it were one.

[Mcouioui]

It is can be is born in the imagination of a smith who gave him this image because the shape inspired the horseshoe...

[J.H.Berger]

This one was definitely not made from a horseshoe but resembles its shape! Decoration!

[Mcouioui]

Ja, decoration...
Let us be two minutes on the place of the lad when he make him, there is a chance so that he is a smith, so that his work of every day is to shoe horses, If I am on his place, the idea comes to me naturally to the mind.
Someone will say, bad calculation and they will maybe be right, but I think that the work of amateur historian, it is to look at an object or the touch, and to see through him, even if it leads to the error... It is just my 2cts. ;)

[David Fox]

As I recall, Stan Phillips in his "Excavated Artifacts of the Civil War" illustrates a dug specimen.

[Silas]

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.aspx?ss=jaw%20harp&c=&c2=&sb=&sd=&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]

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]

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.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/6856/img089i.jpg (http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img089i.jpg)

Found near Winchester Virginia, exposed to Gettysburg
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6049/img090b.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img090b.jpg)

We find these models on civilwarantiqueshop
http://www.civilwarantiqueshop.com/pi6.htm

[Danny]

...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]

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]

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 (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/speculate) :


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]

Not quite... Per an online dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/speculate) :
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]

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]

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]

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]

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