“Tiefenbrunner, Kiendl and Haslwanter zithers are among the acoustically finest ever made. A brief look at their early lives will show that they reached this excellence along very different paths ………Tiefenbrunner’s excellent zithers (and those of his son and grandson) are admired today not only for their sound, but also for their painstaking craftsmanship" I have, despite hours of internet research failed to find out very much more. Can anyone assist with the following questions and/or point me in the direction of further potential sources of information :-
A) Whilst Georg Tiefenbrunner commenced making zithers circa 1842 when did the company, presumably under his grandson, cease production?
B) Was it the Tiefenbrunner convention to use the date of production as an identifier? I have seen a couple of others where a 6 or 7 digit number is recorded and can be read as a dates.
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The instrument is in very good condition with no cracks apart from a barely discernible 2 inch crack at the top of the fretboard which is either ebony or mahogany. The frets are level. The unusual knurled tuning discs and the spherical feet with steel spikes when subjected to ultra violet light and the needle test proved to be ivory. The tuning pins are rectangular with a left handed thread. Documents with the zither included an undated, cloth covered hardback 14th Edition of A Carr’s Instruction Book, various sheet music and zither related publicity material, all undated but either Munich or Leipzig in origin. Some bear the autograph of Ethel M. Brown in copperplate handwriting, possibly the first owner of the zither. The case is of dovetailed wooden construction and may at one time have been covered with some sort of fabric.
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Taking all this together suggests it may well be a 19th century instrument and despite the age of the strings which I'll probably replace, it sounds in terms of clarity and tone absolutely beautiful. I'd love to know more about the Tiefenbrunner dynasty and the thoughts anyone has regarding the instrument.