Can someone please identify the age of harmonica?
It’s a 52/240 M Hohner. Additional numbers on the box are 1-027.611-99
The tears 1893 and 1900 are engraved on the harmonica, which is in very good condition
New member, can only upload 1 photo
Many thanks for any help
This is a Hohner Kreuzwender harmonica, a model which was first built in 1987 and is still in the program today. Going by the packaging, yours is clearly fairly old, i.e. probably late 1980s. The dates on the covers only tell you that it was manufactured after that, harmonicas are generally not dated and have no serial number.
Hope that helps
Steve
Hi Steve, thanks for your response. The previous owner passed long before 1987 and this harmonica came into my family in the 1960’s. I doubt that it was purchased new.
It looks like a Kreuzwender, but the timeline doesn’t fit. Was there a similar looking predecessor model?
Thanks in advance
Sorry, the initial dating info came from Hohner Service and their records may be incomplete. I just asked German Harmonica Museum curator Martin Häffner, who told me the Kreuzwender was indeed marketed much earlier and was first mentioned in the 1893 catalogue (the 4-harmonica version). He will check his records and let me know when the 6-harmonica version was first released. Going by the dates on your example it will clearly be 20th century, but as these instruments didn’t have serial numbers it may be hard to be more specific. I’ll let you know what Martin finds out,
Steve
