The instrument at hand is a simple all-melody fretless zither of a type believed to be from the 1860s or 1870s.

These early fretless zithers are characterized by their having the tuning information and string numbers imprinted in an arc across the soundboard. These zithers also quite often have the tuning pins set into the edge of the frame, a structural and functional error.

Fortunately the subject of our restoration project has the tuning pins set into the block through the instrument's front as came to be the usual. There is no head bridge. Instead, screws serve as individual bridges for each string. It is interesting to note that an idea similar (though not identical) to this was adopted by Oscar Schmidt Company and incorporated into the design of certain autoharp models over 100 years later.

Here is a look at the instrument as we began its restoration. As this type goes, this one's condition was quite good.