Hohner Comet Harmonica
date: label: date made
content: ca 1953
name: label: designer
content: Vassos, John
label: maker
content: Hohner
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This harmonica was made by Hohner, Germany, about 1953, and designed by painter and Industrial designer John Vassos. It is a Comet model in a crescent-shape, with 16 double holes and 32 reeds. It has a purple plastic comb with metal cover plates attached with screws. Accessioned with an original plastic box. The harmonica is enameled:</p>
label: Description
content: <p>COMET<br>[Hohner logo]<br>M.HOHNER<br>MADE IN GERMANY</p>
label: Description
content: <p>(and printed on the box):</p>
label: Description
content: <p>COMET<br>MADE IN GERMANY<br>M.HOHNER</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Painter and Industrial designer John Vassos (1898-1985), was born in Sulina, Romania to Greek parents who moved when he was a child to Istanbul, Turkey. After the end of WWI, Vassos emigrated to the United States. He was trained as an artist and entered the fledgling field of industrial design in the 1920s. In addition to designing products, he wrote and illustrated books, painted murals, undertook commercial art commissions, was a founder and first president of the earliest professional design organization in the U.S. (the American Designers Institute) and co-founded one of the first programs in industrial design education. While working for RCA Victor, Vassos was responsible for the designs for radios with the first horizontal dial, the first push-button tuning, the first legless console case, and the first plastic case. As was typical, Vassos worked for numerous companies and designed a wide variety of products ranging from an RCA electron microscope (1934) to Waterman's first Lucite pen (1928) to the turnstile for the Perey Company (1929).<p>
label: Description
content: <p>John Vassos Papers are housed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
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content: Harmonicas
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Paul Johnes
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0668.01
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0668.01
label: accession number
content: 1989.0668
objectType: label: Object Name
content: harmonica
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: enamel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: box: 1 1/2 in x 5 3/4 in x 2 in; 3.81 cm x 14.605 cm x 5.08 cm