Harte Meijer from Gasselternijveenschemond is still not tired of his shed full of harmonicas and accordions. “Every harmonica has a story,” he says with a smile.
It started with about six harmonicas. His collection has now grown to around 350 pieces. He gets some from acquaintances, but he also searches for them himself. Together with his wife Ria, Harte visits all kinds of flea markets in Europe looking for new ones. “Our holidays were even completely designed around it.”
The collection also contains other objects: statues in all shapes and sizes. They are not random statues, because they all have an accordion in their hands. That is mainly his wife’s hobby.
She doesn’t have to think long about what she thinks of the collection. “I like it, but he has to clean it himself.” Harte calls himself a collector’s freak. “Sometimes we watch TV together in the evening and Harte suddenly says that he is going to the shed for a while. He enjoys that and I like that,” says Ria.
Ria is happy to help him. Harte’s collection can be visited as a museum. “Sometimes groups of people come and I take care of the catering. Coffee, cake and sometimes I recite a poem. Not about accordions, mind you,” she says with a smile. And if Harte has scored something new? “Then it is put on the table and I have to take a look at it first.”
Today, Harte is no longer actively looking for new harmonicas. There is one in his collection that stands out for him. “When I go to the Hohner Museum in Trossingen, I can’t find it. They do have a similar one. Of course I’ll still look for it!”
