EBay dulcimer

Subject: EBay dulcimer
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Nov 15 - 11:37 AM

This (ending soon) looks like it might have a bit of history to it:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/antique-3-string-dulcimer-/191734353599

Was Marshall an early folklorist who collected dulcimers?

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Nov 15 - 10:00 PM

I dunno, but it's interesting. I've never seen a dulcimer look like that.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 15 Nov 15 - 11:20 PM

I have seen quite a few older dulcimers but never anything quite like this. It is apparently designed to be noted on only one string. Interesting design.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:49 AM

The Appalachian dulcimer is just one version of a form of instrument which is found in a number of different forms. This looks to me as if it might be a related instrument, possibly a Swedish Hummel?

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 01:03 PM

The ending price was low enough (£8.50) that it would have been a modest investment to get your hands on the instrument to take a look.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:04 PM

It isn't a dulcimer.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 08:07 PM

Got a better word for it, then? (It seems to be from the US, so in particular, what better American word for it is there?)

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 08:33 PM

Does anyone know what the d.d. stands for in front of Mrs. Hartley Maud's name?

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 08:16 AM

Jack, what makes you say it comes from the US? The sale was on UK ebay and the item was in Staplehurst, which is in Kent. In the UK, 'dulcimer' usually meant the hammered variety, at least until the Appalachian version entered the folk revival.

This one doesn't look much like an American dulcimer, although it's clearly a member of the same family, which includes the epinette de vosges from France, the Hungarian citera and the Swedish Hummel. This seems to most closely resemble a hummel, but I'm no expert.

I'm not sure about the "d.d", but on the assumption that the "Coll" in "J Marshall Coll" means a collection, my guess is she was the donor.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 08:44 AM

The way it was labelled looked like the style I've seen on American museum specimens rather than those from anywhere else.

The scheitholt has the same idea as the hummel (and is probably ancestral to it) - some of the strings are drones, and (for the scheitholt, anyway) there may be only one noted course. But examples of both hummels and scheitholts that I can find pictures of are much better crafted than the EBay one - I suspect that was made by a rural carpenter.

The Hungarian citera is quite a bit more standardized.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 09:21 AM

Try researching the writing on the instrument for a clue. I searched on Marshall and hit law schools in the US, but if you search "Mrs. Hartley Maud" this turns up:

Proceedings, Volumes 51-52, But Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (this volume housed in California).

Donations Towards the Taunton Castle Restoration and Deficit Fund
Since the Publication of Vo. LI of the "Proceedings," and up to December 31st, 1906.

Marshall, Mrs. (now Mrs. Hartley Maud)

The result is a free e-book through Google books. Taunton: Barnicott and Pearce, Athenaeum Press, 1906.

This is a bread crumb, but if the name and the period satisfy searchers that the woman named on the instrument is from the region this book is about, then it's back in your court. The instrument is from the UK.

Subject: RE: EBay dulcimer
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 09:32 AM

'This one doesn't look much like an American dulcimer, although it's clearly a member of the same family, which includes the epinette de vosges from France, the Hungarian citera and the Swedish Hummel. This seems to most closely resemble a hummel, but I'm no expert.'

The instrument on sale looks very similar to some types Flemish 'hommels' described in Hubert Boone's 1970s study 'De Hommel in de Lage Landen'/'The Hommel in the Low Countries' and it seems to make sense to identify it as a European dulcimer/epinette/hommel; type instrument.