I don't know about Voigt but this seems to be identical to the top model (out of three) in Zimmermann's 1899 catalogue:
Made from palisander, mother-of-pearl inlays, tuner mechanism of newsilver, mahogany neck. Price: 50 Mark. Zimmermann fails to mention who made it though. ------- David Kilpatrick wrote: > Ron's Portugese guitarra looks very similar in construction to a > German instrument, and despite the label, I would not be surprised if > it was an import custom made for the music warehouse in Germany, Voigt > being a spelling associated with south-eastern regions where > instruments were made. That's true but even so, the instrument was probably of Portuguese design and it's almost certainly built in Portugal (I can't imagine they'd fake a label). Those German instrument distributors worked on a modus operandi that may seem strange in today's business world. They usually built some instruments themselves, they bought products from each other and from smaller local companies and they imported products from other countries. Then they sold retail and wholesale around the world. A complex system that undoubtedly evolved from the closeknit community of the instrument maker's guild. It's highly unlikely they'd get a manufacturer abroad to built to *their* specifications though. If they wanted something custom-made for their catalogue, they'd order it locally. Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
