Mouth Organ

P. Peckmann

ca. 1835 · Wood, leather, various materials · Musical Instruments

This instrument, known only by this specimen, has the shape of a baroque-period racket and was seemingly meant as a historicist "new racket." It speaks with pressure and suction, has two-by-five finger buttons, and is tuned like a harmonica in D. The arrangement of the buttons, however, allows one to play chords, making the instrument well suited for accompaniment. Another concept was to provide a large resonance chamber, in the form of the hollow wooden cylinder underneath the reeds at the upper end of the instrument. The sound of the instrument has a special tenderness. Peckmann is also known as a maker of music boxes. The mouth pipe is a reproduction.

Artist

P. Peckmann

Date

ca. 1835

Medium

Wood, leather, various materials

Culture

Austrian

Department

Musical Instruments

Credit line

The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889