Re: [Harp-L] re : 10 Grand Civil War harmonica



On Nov 14, 2012, at 1:34 PM, pneupco@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> If it's genuine, it ain't worth ten grand - even if General Grant/Lee (your choice) had it in his own back pocket. In my opinion it's only worth about $75 or so. Just because it's rare it doesn't mean that it has any kind of worth. It's the demand for an item that helps to bring up the price.
> 
> I remember seeing either this one or another one a lot like it a few years ago, but I don't remember where, though. If I remember correctly, it was claimed then that the wooden covers were a home-made affair, presumably to replace the ruined originals. It's too bad that we can't see the reeds, because if they
> were machine made, then you'd know it was made after 1880.


> 
> Ok, here's another outrageous story from the smo-joe

It's 1951. A 9 year old American boy winds up in Trieste Italy because his father is posted there. The boy took some of his treasures with him and one of them is a Kratt American made harmonica of some past vintage. One day, while running for an articulated (2 piece) street car on the way to school, the harmonica falls from his pocket, and after bouncing on the cobblestones, falls on the track whereas the second half of the streetcar runs over the high end third. Crushing it. 

A street urchin from the displaced person's camp is rummaging around town for anything useful. He takes said harmonica home to his cardboard shack and somewhere in time, he looses it. Years later, someone is digging for a new building and the workers find the harmonica. 

Ok, question? HOW did an American harmonica get there. Hmm, this area was hotly contested in WWI. But HOW did it get here? It's American.Someone must have brought it here? Hmm, what a mystery. It must have been brought by an American? But who? Hmm, Ernest Hemmingway drove ambulance around this area. A-HAAAAAAA, it once belonged to Hemmingway. 

Conclusion? Let's price it at 17, 625, ooo lire (abt. $10,ooo.oo). See, see, what I'm sane? 

smokey-joe   







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