Hi all,

This was a post in the e-mail harplist today, and I thought it might spread the word if I posted it here too. The instruments are dulcimers, an autoharp, a lap harp, and some other things. Let me know if you get any clues as to their whereabouts and I'll send it back through the harplist.

Helen

Subject: [Harplist] Alert - Stolen Instruments Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 17:04:52 -0500 List folks,

This morning the following message was posted by .... to our dulcimer list. The first part of the following message was his original message. Since one of the stolen instruments is a harp, I contacted him, and suggested that I post a description of that instrument along with his original message to the harplist.

Here's his message - at the end is is second message with the description of the harp:

Quoting message------------------

.... Today (Nov.6), sometime between 11:00 and 12:00 in north Arlington, TX, we had five instruments stolen out of our van. We had stopped at the Cracker Barrel on Hwy 360, north of I- 30 for breakfast on our way to do a demonstration of Dulcimers and other instruments for about 150 girl scouts. If you could, please watch out for the following instruments either in local music stores, pawn shops, or on E-bay.

1- Custom Mtn. Dulcimer Padauk body with Sitka Spruce top. Sound hole patterns include a dogwood blossom on each side of the lower bouts, with a cross on the right hand side of the upper bout. The head has a dogwood blossom carved on both sides.

1- Custom Mtn. Dulcimer, Walnut body with Cherry head, tail and fretboard. Sound hole patterns include a Celtic Cross soundhole with woodburned Celtic knotwork above and below on each of the lower bouts, with a circular Celtic pattern for the upper right hand sound hole. The head has a capital "T" from the book of Kells, surrounded by a ring of Celtic knotwork (all woodburned), on both sides.

Both mountain dulcimers were in a double side-by-side case, black cordura with tapestry front, and sheepskin lining.

1- Oscar Schmidt, 24 bar Autoharp, black body and top, in a blue cordura case.

1- Santa Rosa, maple mandolin in a black nylon case (one month old).

1- 3-octave Celtic Lap harp, gold fiberglass sound chamber, with maple arch and nylon strings.

This doesn't include the harmonicas, 4 pair of bones (2 pr. zebra wood, and 2 pr elk rib-bone) as well as tuners etc.

The only instruments that they did not take was a banjo, and a David's Dulcimer Grand HD.

The mandolin and autoharp wouldn't stand out, but there are no other mtn. dulcimers that will look like these two. If anyone in and around the Dallas-Ft. Worth area come across them (or if anyone finds them on an on-line auction), please let us know.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

........

------------- ............

The harp was a small lap harp, with a 3 octave range. The soundbox was gold painted fiberglass with stainless steel feet. The arch was made of maple. The instrument was strung with nylon strings, and had very small tuning pins (under 3/16") with no sharping levers. I do not know what brand it was, or where it originally came from, since we bought it used several years ago. I don't even know a good estimate of what the replacement cost would be.

Any assistance that you or your list members can provide would be greatly appreciated.