[ Christian Greinacher wrote in 050706 MMDigest about the laterna:

> I am asking again if somebody could identify the maker of my
> instrument ... shown at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/greinacher3.html 

Well, we're finally back from Greece, so I've been able to have
a look at the pictures.  Yours is the same as the instrument I saw.
There was another, as well, being wheeled around the Plaka souvenir
district of Athens, and I think it might have been playing Turkish
music -- I certainly couldn't recognize a tune from that one.

Besides the piano strings, the laterna has a bell -- kind of like the
one you ring for service at a hotel reception desk -- that's clanged
periodically by a pin on the barrel.  The timing of the ring doesn't
seem to have much to do with the music at hand, but there it is.

There are a few of these instruments languishing in various antique
stores in Athens.  The guy at the basement clock-repair shop & antique
store I went to had two of them, plus a Pianola push-up, in case anyone
wants to buy and restore it.

I took pictures of the laterna in Thessaloniki, and I'll try to scan
and post them as soon as I get them sent in for developing.

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio, USA
http://www.mkinsler.com/