Posted 5 years ago
weedyt
(2 items)
We found this strange device while clearing my late father's house.
The piece through the middle is quite flexible, almost like a leaf spring. The decoration is only impressed on one side - the other side has an 'ENGLAND' stamp but anything else like a makers mark is worn to pretty much nothing.
Can anyone satisfy our curiosity?!
I believe it's called a Juice Harp a Musical device you play with your mouth.
Stuff
Other names are Jew's Harp Jaw Harp.
Stuff
So it is.
Thanks for the very quick reply.
Mystery solved!
Welcome to CW!! Stick around it's a great site to see and solve STUFF!!
If you want to hear the sound:
https://youtu.be/K4oyKRiuS_w
Here is another one
https://youtu.be/RtvRkD1gF7g
I have an old one hanging on a hook out in my shop. Depends on the part of the country you are in but Juice & Jews harp both apply.
It's an intriguing instrument!
As a side note, my paternal grandmother was born Jewish, so I wonder if her husband brought it as a kind of joke - although, as she fled Germany in the late 1930s, it would have been in pretty poor taste!
It wasn't at all a joke or in bad taste. Actually it was originally spelled "lewes harp". They were quite popular in Europe especially Austria long ago.
It is one of the oldest instruments in the world and historians think it came from Asia to Europe. It has spread to almost every country in the world.