Description

This is a circa 1900 3-stringed domra made by Julius Heinrich Zimmermann in Berlin, Germany. In general, the domra is a long-necked Belarusian, Russian, or Ukrainian folk string instrument. 

The body of this domra is approximately 25″ long, and has a beautiful rosewood bowl back or gourd-shaped back made with seven staves. The top board is likely made of spruce and has an ebony insert in the sound hole with seven holes. The sound hole is lined with a four-part white and black binding.

The fingerboard is made of ebony and has 24 frets and tapers off into an angular shape near the soundhole. The headstock has an ebony veneered top layer and is fitted with the Zimmermann logo which reads: “Jul Heinr Zimmermann Leipzig Berlin”.

On the top board, underneath the saddle, the word “Kreml” is etched into the wood. Kreml, in German, translates to Kremlin. According to a Wiki post about Zimmermann, in 1901, Julius Heinrich Zimmermann was bestowed with the Order of Saint Stanislaus by tsar Nicholas II of Russia. This may explain the word “Kreml” to some extent. Zimmermann also made instruments for the Russian army at that time.

There are some scratches on the top board and back bowl. There are minor hairline cracks on the top board as seen in the pictures. There is a piece of the veneer that is missing from the left-side of the headstock. The tuners, tailpiece, and saddle are original as are all of the frets and nut. There is some tarnish on the tailpiece and tuners. There is some slight loss of wood between two of the back staves (visible in one of the pictures).

Size and Specs:

• Nut size: 1 1/16″
• Scale: 16″
• Overall length: 25″
• Body depth: 4 1/2″
• Body width: 8 7/8″

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