Chordophone

Date1885-1910 ca.

Place MadeRedwood Falls, Minnesota, United States, North America

Serial No.none

SignedPrinted in black on paper label with decorative border, the last line written in black ink: MADE BY / C. O. MORGAN. / Redwood Falls, Minn. / PAT.Ap’d. FOR.
MarkingsDiatonic note names from G to G painted in white on fingerboard
Written on soundpost and treble side of upper back brace: X
DescriptionMoveable capo. Handwritten on label, PAT. Ap'd FoR.
Charles Morgan, born in July 1848 in New York, is listed as a machinist in Redwood Falls in the 1900 census. In 1910 he was listed as living in Northfield, MN, working as a machinist in a sheet metal works (age 71). In 1920 he was still in Northfield, doing general repair from home. In 1885, he was listed in the Minnesota census as living in Birch Cooley. He died in Northfield on March 7, 1934, at the age of 85. See also other Northfield directory listings between 1911 and 1929.

Stringing: 12 steel strings
Soundboard: two-piece pine: very wide grain
Back: rosewood veneer over four-piece quarter-sawn oak
Sides: one-piece mahogany
Head: maple
Neck: maple; integral with head
Heel cap: integral with back
Binding: none
fingerboard: black-stained birch; black-painted maple slider with brass wire saddle can be moved under strings to different marked chord positions
Nut: black-painted maple
Bridge: black-painted maple with brass wire saddle
Tuners: twelve steel pins
Soundhole: edge rounded
Endpin: black-painted maple
Finish: dark orange brown with craquelure
Linings: mahogany; thin
Neck block: birch; beveled edges; extra, small birch block with beveled edges screwed to surface of larger block
End block: birch; beveled edges
Top braces: two wide spruce lateral braces with tapered ends, one below soundhole, one in lower bout; one wide maple brace/bridge plate with rectangular spruce soundpost between top and back at treble side of this brace; braces do not extend to edge
Back braces: two wide spruce lateral braces, one above and one below widest point in body; braces to not extend to edge
DimensionsTotal mandolin guitar length: 906 mm (35-21/32″)
Top length: 440 mm (17-5/16″)
Lower bout width: 324 mm (12-3/4″)
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 58 mm (2-9/32″)
Rib height, at waist: 61 mm (2-13/32″)
Rib height, at end block: 61 mm (2-13/32″)
Head length: 117 mm (4-19/32″)
Head width, top: 69 mm (2-23/32″)
Head width, bottom: 55 mm (2-5/32″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 347 mm (13-21/32″)
Neck width, nut: 53 mm (2-3/32″)
Neck width, heel: 54 mm (2-1/8″)
Soundhole diameter: 82 mm (3-7/32″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 608 mm (23-15/16″)

Credit LinePaul and Jean Christian Collection

Object number12504

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