Guitar
Date1840-1910 ca.
Place MadeMarkneukirchen, Saxony, Germany, Europe
ModelMartin & Coupa copy
Serial No.none
SignedFragmentary remains of printed label with cut corners: SA[oblit.]MarkingsNote names scratched into fingerboard behind each fret between the third and fourteenth frets
DescriptionThis guitar shares many of the same physical features as guitars made by Christian Friedrich Martin and labeled Martin & Coupa, in partnership with the New York guitar teacher John Coupa. The distinctive, delicate neck heel shape, as well as the back button in imitation of the integral back and button of the Spanish guitars, is common to these instruments, which imitate the Spanish style without incorporating its construction features, such as a through neck and neck block. Also in imitation of the Spanish style via Martin are the body shape and the strip along the center of the ribs. This instrument, while not of the quality of a real Martin, is clearly made by a commercial competitor to be a facsimile of the basic Martin & Coupa design, and was probably made in Markneukirchen, where Martin originated.
Stringing: six gut strings
Soundboard: two-piece spruce, medium grain
Back: quarter-cut spruce, the medium grain at an angle to center line of guitar, veneered two pieces of book-matched rosewood divided by a maple center stripe surrounded on each side by maple and brown-stained maple strips
Ribs: two-piece, slab-cut, plain maple veneered in four pieces of rosewood, divided along center by a maple center stripe surrounded on each side by maple and brown-stained maple strips, divided at bottom end by black-stained maple end graft strip surrounded on each side by alternating strips of maple and brown-stained maple strips
Head: black-painted maple, Stauffer-style, with plug for separate end-finial, now missing
Neck: three piece mahogany, with separate pieces at neck heel and underneath fingerboard; ebony band at joint with head; flared neck heel
Heel cap: ebony; continued the line of the back stripe, in imitation of Spanish-style construction, like the Martin & Coupa guitars
Binding: maple with trim comprised of decorative maple and brown-stained maple trapezoids, surrounded by four-ply maple and brown-stained maple trim on each side, on top; trim comprised of three-ply maple and brown-stained maple trim on back and ribs
Fingerboard: ebony with ebony binding over neck; ebony with no binding over top; 18 nickel-silver bar frets
Nut: black-painted maple
Bridge: later rosewood with white plastic saddle
Tuners: enclosed tuners set into head, with rose-engraved brass cover plate and nickel-silver heads
Endpin: maple; broken off at rib
Rosette: decorative maple and brown-stained maple trapezoids, surrounded by four-ply maple and brown-stained maple trim on each side, separated from two additional rings comprised of five-ply alternating strips of maple and brown-stained maple, the inner-most strip abutting maple binding along soundhole edge
Varnish: clear; head painted black
Linings: spruce
Neck block: spruce; rounded shape
End block: spruce; rounded shape
Top braces: four tapered spruce parallel braces, the upper most brace not extending to linings, the lower three braces set into linings; no bridge plate; bridge pins extend through top above lower bout brace
Back braces: three spruce parallel braces with rounded outlines, tapered and set into linings; spruce center graft
DimensionsTotal guitar length: 939 mm
Back length: 444 mm
Upper bout width: 214 mm
Waist width: 174 mm
Lower bout width: 294 mm
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 87 mm
Rib height, at waist: 93 mm
Rib height, at end block: 98 mm
Head length: 185 mm
Head width, top: 35 mm
Head width, bottom: 59 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 312 mm
Neck width, nut: 44 mm
Neck width, heel: 56 mm
Soundhole diameter: 4 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 620 mm
Published ReferencesInventing the American Guitar : the Pre-Civil War Innovations of C.F. Martin and His Contemporaries. Edited by Robert Shaw and Peter Szego (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 2013), p. 26.
Credit LineArne B. Larson Estate
Object number14490
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