I sent your note to Svato Schutzner, a Czech ex-colleague of mine at
the Library of Congress, to see what he might know about your organ
firm. He provided no information about the firm, but shed this light
on the wording you quoted.
Matthew Caulfield
- - -
Horovice (with hachek on the r) is a charming small town between
Prague and Pilzen, closer to the latter; I once slept there
overnight on a bench in the square, in a sleeping bag, aged 18
or so.
'Harmonika' is Czech for accordion; 'harmonik' is genitive plural.
'Hotovitel' is a very old-fashioned, now out-of-use, term for
'maker.' So the meaning of the inscription is:
VACLAV SLAVIK -- the man's name
HONOVICICH -- it must be HOROVICICH, meaning 'in Horovice'
HOTOVITEL HARMONIK -- 'maker of accordions'
'Von Horovic nach Zbirow (Haltestelle) der Boehmichen Westbahn'
means 'From Horovice to Zbirow (whistle stop) of the Bohemian
(Czech) western line'
A 'Haltestelle' (in Czech 'zastavka') means a train stop that is
not a railway station; the train stopped only for a few moments
unless there were unusually many people getting in or out. It may
be that sometimes one had to request that the train stop there.
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