Recently Madison County saw a string of rural home burlaries thought to be committed by a man now in custody. Some items the police recovered have not been claimed and officials have put out a list in order to locate the owners.
One unclaimed thing is an unusual musical instrument, a rectangular cello. We first saw a photo of this on the local news and this morning again in the Belleville paper. I've never seen a cello like this.
After a bit of googling, it appears as though this cello type is English made and elderly. Heh. Surely there will only be one person out there missing his/her rectangular cello.
As one of the other posters noted, this is a "Porta-Cello", made by Knilling in England in the late '60s. There were aimed to be portable instruments for students. You can't see the back, but it's got a hinged "wing" that swings out to give it the same width as a cello. In theory, they're small enough to fit into a locker.
They're not that common, and go for around $300-$600 on eBay, depending on what sort of shape they're in. This one is in good shape, and had the original case.
Unsurprisingly, I've heard that they don't sound that great. They're also apparently a prone to having the soundpost punch a hole through the front.
Still, I'd love to have one.
Posted by: dcuny | July 24, 2012 at 12:33 PM