Christmas Loot: John's Hohner

This unusual harmonica has a name: Trumpet Call. It was introduced in 1906 and recently reissued as part of a historic Hohner series. My husband saw it on the cover of the Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog a few months back and fell in love. I tracked it down for Christmas and it was not an easy task; it was on back order everywhere (because of a flood at the Hohner factory?) and not available until February or later. I found one on amazon.com of all places, ordered it, and received a confirmation from the seller, The Instrument Store. Skeptical, I replied with an email: "I would be grateful if you would confirm this item is in stock and will be sent soon. I understand these Hohners are in short supply and I hope to give this to my husband for Christmas, since he finds it fascinating (which is strange, since he doesn’t even play the harmonica)." And received this response: "Yes, we have a few in stock (probably the only ones in the country). We will ship either today or tomorrow and you should have the item within 5 days." Which I did. John was surprised. It came in a nice wood box and sounds pretty good.

Photograph by Jonah Klevesahl and his iPhone.