Julius Heinrich Zimmermann Leipzig No. 6 c1906 all solid Antique parlor romantic concert guitar

Julius Heinrich Zimmermann No. 6

Antique Luthier made romantic Parlor guitar made in Leipzig Germany.

A very special  hand made   guitar  in very good  condition for  over 100 years and fully playable. 

I have striped , cleaned , hydrated and treated the fret board and polished  all the frets and  the guitar when set-up will have low to medium  action strait neck and fantastic  fret condition.   

I have strung with D'addario RJ15 bronze extra lights as I am not familiar with  this bridge type and I think a luthier will have a better idea of the string choice and final set-up.

So please only bid if you know more about these specialist guitars and budget for a luthier set-up as I'm not sure what are than best strings and the intonation is a little off.

Zimmermann No, 6 

64cm Length  *37"
Shoulders 26cm
Waist 20cm 
Lower bout 24cm  
Depth 8cm

Solid cedar top (2 very  fine linear hairline cracks which are hard to see with the naked eye.  They are  literally human hair thin so very easy to seal and  antique guitars  usually come up with a whole host of more serious problems not found here. 

There is   a side repair in the left shoulder of the rosewood which has been done professionally and is only just noticeable. You can't feel to touch but you should be able to see in pic 25. 

The head stock exhibits  scratches and a few scuffs  but I have lightly  sanded. hydrated, and polished and also I treated the  steel barrels which has some light rust, all the tuners work great and very smoothly after I serviced.  

light  normal signs or wear and a few areas of damage (few little edge binding areas of note and  tiny area of purfling damage on the left side shown.  

Soundboard is  solid and nice and flat with no warping.

One piece  oak back (bowl back)

Solid rosewood sides

Exquisite Art Nouveau styled mother of pearl inlay rosette. (no damage or pitting,  and all level)  such  beautiful and detailed artwork.

Hand shaped set ebony nut 

Ornate wooden marquetry purfling

Original ebony Sculpted Arts and Craft styled   bridge (Semi-Floating)

Stauffer style adjustable neck with hex bolt at the front of the heel
there is a visible bolt in in the center of the inner heel so perhaps the neck can even be removed but  certainly the neck is future proof being  easily adjustable to obtain  the best required action.

Ebony wood  strap button 

original mother of pearl tipped ebony bridge pins

Ebony tipped  heel which is nicely carved and neatly plush to the body. 

High quality all original ivory key machine heads (The G note peg stem is slightly bent)  and some show  some light  wear to the  ivory but no cracks and all work really nicely. . 

Semi-floating African hardwood   fret board 

The frets are all very nice   with none sharp or sunken and the frets are nicely level

The neck is strait with only nominal fret board relief, the action is set at 2.85mm which is pretty low for a guitar of this size but the guitar still has good projection and superb tone coming from the all solid woods and exceptional craft.

Unusual bridge that  appears attached to the soundbard  at the front &  floats  at the back and  secured and   raised by the bridge pins - It is perhaps  a Zimmermann feature, there are 6 neat  holes in the soundboard under the bridge for the  ebony bridge pins to form a removable floating bridge, so as the strings tighten, the bridge tilts forward into a small groove in the soundboard at the front of the bridge , it's a  genius method and pure physics so i'm  not sure why more guitars do not use this method. So you can remove the bridge to clean anytime as I have done now.  

The bridge pins elevate the back of the bridge and keep perfectly even, very  cool  &  unique design. The thin wooden slender saddle  sits in a neat   groove craved into the  bridge. 

The guitar will be shipped in a new guitar bag and old  3/4 semi-rigid case from the 60s which is shabby but will help protect the guitar which will be extremely well packed.

Heinr. Zimmermann was established in 1875 in St. Petersburg (Russia, I believe) by Julius Heinrich Zimmermann (1851-1922). Zimmerman started out as musical instrument dealers and later were known as wind, percussion and string instrument makers and suppliers of all musical instruments as well as being music publishers. In 1882 Zimmermann was an exclusive supplier to the Russian army and in 1886 their headquarters moved to Leipzig. From there their branches opened in 1882/1885 in Moscow, in 1897 opened in London, 1903/1905 in Riga (Lativa) and 1919 in Berlin (Germany). Around 1905 they advertised as having 'factories at Leipzig, St. Petersburg and Moscow'. In 1918/1920 they established a factory in Markneukirchen (Germany) and in 1929 the former St. Petersburg branch transferred to Leipzig (Germany). In 1922, after Julius Heinrich's death, Wilhelm Zimmermann led as proprietor. In the 1920s woodwind instruments were being made in their own workshops in Leipzig and Berlin. In their 1908 catalog, it offered woodwind instruments, brass instruments, percussion instruments, string instruments, harps, accessories and etc.