✅ SOLVED Is this a Jews Harp?

[testing123]

Is this a Jew's Harp? SOLVED! Thanks guys!

It measures a little under 2" long and about 7/8" at its widest point. Could this be a Jew's/Jaw Harp?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

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[plymouthian12]

It measures a little under 2" long and about 7/8" at its widest point. Could this be a Jew's/Jaw Harp?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

looks like one

 

[Tony in SC]

That's what it is!! Tony

 

[digging wv]

You're just missing the reed!

 

[Swartzie]

Yep. Looks like an oldie too. Nice find!
-Swartzie

 

[testing123]

Thanks guys for your help! Any rough idea on age?

 

[baspinall]

My guess would be late 18th early 19th century.

 

[Breezie]

Yeppers, and an old one too! Breezie

 

[Swartzie]

Thanks guys for your help! Any rough idea on age?

I have dug several of these that look just like yours. The site was a mid 1700's fur trade site. The jews harp was a popular trade item between the indian and the whites. It's old. Like baspinall said 18th - early 19th century. Was this dug on a home site or something that may have been a campsite? I attached a picture from a reference book of Indian trade relics.

-swartzie

 

[Lee-MI-MI]

What is it made of?

I have one that I bought as a kid that looks just like yours. Probably back in the 1950's or so.

My frame is made of aluminum. If it is old I assume the frame would be made of brass, I don't think they used aluminum very much back then. I think some even had steel frame. Can't remember, that was a very long time ago.

 

[testing123]

I have dug several of these that look just like yours. The site was a mid 1700's fur trade site. The jews harp was a popular trade item between the indian and the whites. It's old. Like baspinall said 18th - early 19th century. Was this dug on a home site or something that may have been a campsite? I attached a picture from a reference book of Indian trade relics.

-swartzie

Thanks for the pic and info swartzie! It was found at a homesite that was built in the 1700s and is still in use today.

Would you say it's brass or copper?

 

[greydigger]

Mine is steel frame and tang.
Grandpa was born in 1887 and taught me how to play.
Grandma was 1/2 Cherokee.
Grey

 

[digging wv]

looks like a relatively modern harp The frame looks the same.

 

[BuckleBoy]

The brass ones we dig are certainly late 1700s finds. In all my digging in Kentucky over the years, I only managed to dig one single brass jew's harp. Of course, the sites I was digging were all early to mid 1800s sites, the majority of them long gone by 1900. I did see a friend of mine dig one at a house built in the 1770s in Virginia on a trip there. So that gives you an idea of the age.

I dug one from a late 1700s site here in Louisiana this spring, plus an iron one as well. (They did make these out of iron, and they do not hold up well after 250 years in the ground.)

As you approach the mid 1800s, the harmonica replaced the jew's harp as the simple musical instrument of choice.

Congratulations on an old find!

Best Wishes,


Buckleboy