Made from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, mandolin harps are a type of fretless chord zither, like an autoharp. Mandolin harps are unique in that they have a device literally called a “gizmo” that allows one to approximate the fast picking of a mandolin with the help of a rolling button panel that lowers a plectrum pick down to the string and is then moved rapidly back and forth, imitating a mandolin tremolo sound. This Mandolin Harp was made by Oscar Schmidt and is in very nice functional condition, but has a crack in the soundboard.
