The fame of Tielke's instruments has found some echo in the use of "Joach.Tielke-Laute" for a hybrid of a guitar and what the late 19th century imagined to be a lute.

Such instruments were made by the violinmaker and manufacturer Franz Otto Windisch of Schöneck, Vogtland, Saxony; he also used the first letter of his family name as a kind of brand sign. Windisch was born on January 3, 1866 in Schilbach (near Schöneck), he died on May 28, 1935 in the same town. He learned instrument making with Wenzel Himmer, Schöneck. He established his own firm 1886 in Schilbach. In 1903 he opened a branch office in Schöneck which soon became his main place of production. He made all kinds of bowed and plucked string isntruments, including pochettes and instruments after Stelzner. In addition, Windisch dealt with fine quality instruments, wood for instrument makers, and mechanical instruments. He became well known.

A number of instruments carries the abbriviation DRGM (= Deutsches Reichsgebrauchs-muster), a kind of patent on objekts (not technologies), used after the founding of the Deutsches Reiches in 1871, ending in 1945.

Such instruments are today considered of low value. Internet auctions will give you some idea of what your instrument may be worth.