Lyre mandolin
Maker
Orville Gibson
Maker
Gibson
Date1894 -1902 ca.
Place MadeKalamazoo, Michigan, United States, North America
ModelLyre mandolin
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted in black ink on paper label with rounded corners, Orville Gibson photo on lyre mandolin trademark at center of label, with text “TRADE MARK”: [the following on left side of lyre trademark] The Gibson / Mandolins and Guitars [two fleurons] / Are acknowl- / edged by lead- / ing Artists as / World Beaters. / [four fleurons] / EVERY INSTRUMENT / WARRANTED. [sic] / [the following on right side of lyre trademark] Correct Scale. / Easy to Play. / Beautiful Model. / Powerful Tone. / [four fleurons] / Originated and / Patented Febru- / ary 1, 1898, by / O. H. GIBSON / …Kalamazoo, Mich.MarkingsStamped on tension tuner hardware: PAT.MAY8.88
Stamped on tailpiece: PAT’D OCT 26·86
DescriptionIt's a cool piece of sculpture! It's also an American icon, in part because a lyre-mandolin with a superimposed bust of Orville Gibson (b. 1856-d. 1918) was pictured on labels placed in Gibson guitars and mandolins well into the 20th century.
The label, designed and printed soon after Orville received his one and only patent in 1898, may well have been placed in the lyre-mandolin some time after the instrument was actually built.
The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Company, still building guitars today in Nashville, was founded on October 10, 1902, when five businessmen in Kalamazoo, Michigan, paid Orville $2,500 for his name and his one and only patent (#598,245), issued February 1, 1898.
Believed to have begun experimenting with making instruments soon after leaving his home in upstate New York and settling in Kalamazoo as a shoe clerk in 1881, Orville filed for the patent in 1896, while working at a restaurant in order to survive—and spending all of his free time developing new instruments.
NMM 12000 is one of at least three lyre mandolins made by Orville Gibson. Two have survived and been seen in the last 30 years. The instrument shown on the Gibson label has an abalone rosette and braces between the neck and arms. A mandolin discovered in the 1970s has an abalone rosette, fancy, inlaid pickguard, and braces between the neck and arms. NMM 12000 has the simpler double light and dark hardwood rosette (associated with the style 2 instruments produced by the Gibson Company) and no braces between the neck and arms. If the label is original, the reference on the label to Gibson’s 1898 patent suggests the instrument postdates 1897 (and the lyre mandolin on the label). However, Orville Gibson was known to alter and repair his own instruments after they were made and some characteristics of this instrument match those with an earlier date. Only one Orville Gibson instrument, an extensively inlaid mandolin with a handwritten label dated 1906, certainly postdates the founding of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Company. It is unknown, but probably unlikely, that the lyre mandolin trademark appeared on any of Orville’s own instruments after the Company was founded in 1902.
Body: lyre-shaped body with footed decorative elements at base of body and ends of lyre arms
Stringing: four double courses steel strings
Soundboard: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: wide grain; carved arching, flattening at edges and center
Back: one-piece, slab-cut walnut; carved arching, flattening at edges and center
Ribs: walnut, carved; integral with neck
Head: walnut, upper and lower halves of separate pieces, flared and festooned outline; veneered with curled mahogany; inlaid with pink abalone crescent and star
Neck: walnut, upper and lower layers; lower layer integral with rib; hollowed with round hole in base
Heel cap: none
Binding: none
Fingerboard: padauk; 18 nickel-silver frets; single white abalone dots behind 3th, 7th, 10th, and 15th frets; double mother-of-pearl dots behind 5th and 12th frets
Nut: ivory, added by Gruhn Guitars
Bridge: padauk; circles cut from under each course of strings; bridge ends with two decorative scrolls on each side
Tuners: eight nickel-silver tension pegs with ivoroid heads
Tailpiece: nickel-plated brass sheet metal with lyre shape; leather under tailpiece added by Gruhn Guitars
Rosette: oval soundhole with rosette set in 1/8” from edge; two-part, concentric rosette, the bands 1/8” apart, comprised of strips of angled, alternating light and dark hardwood, surrounded on each side by single strips of light and dark hardwood
Pick guard: none
Lacquer: clear with craquelure
Linings: none
Neck block: none
End block: none
Top bracing: none
Grafts: none
DimensionsTotal mandolin length: 673 mm (26-1/2″)
Back length: 305 mm (12″) from neck heel, 244 mm (9-5/8”) from lowest point of rib
Upper bout width (at widest point of lyre at top): 339 mm (13-11/32″)
Waist width (at widest point of lyre): 475 mm (18-11/16″)
Lower bout width: 254 mm (10″) at widest point of base; 138 mm (5-7/16”) at narrowest point of body
Narrowest point of lyre arms: 30 mm (1-3/16”)
Rib height: 33-34 mm (1-5/16″)
Head length: 198 mm (7-13/16″)
Head width, top: 115 mm (4-1/2″)
Head width, bottom: 56 mm (2-3/16″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 184 mm (7-1/4″)
Neck width, nut: 31 mm (1-7/32″)
Neck width, heel: 40 mm (1-9/16″)
Soundhole height: 45 mm (1-25/32″)
Soundhole width: 77 mm (3-1/32″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 369 mm (14-1/2″)
ProvenanceBy the 1930s, owned by a private collector and kept in the same family until its sale to George Gruhn, Nashville, Tennessee. Purchased from Gruhn Guitars, 2006.
Published ReferencesGeorge Gruhn, “Orville Gibson Lyre Mandolin,” Vintage Guitar 20, No. 12 (October
2006), p. 40.
André P. Larson, "An American Icon… NMM Acquires Rare Gibson Lyre-Mandolin,"
National Music Museum Newsletter Vol. 33, No. 3 (August 2006), p. 1-2.
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Tom and Cindy Lillibridge, 2006
Object number12000
On View
On view
