Images(16)

Guitar

Date1840-1900 ca.

Place MadeMarkneukirchen, Saxony, Germany, Europe

ModelAmerican Martin model with slotted head and tapered neck heel

Serial No.none

SignednoneMarkingsLater facsimile label: Zacharias Fiſcher, hochfürſtl. Lauten / und Geigenmacher in Würzburg 1785 Written in black ink on inside of treble rib at center joint: No. 32.4. [sic] Scratched in back of head, under current paint: HART Written in pencil on upper back brace toward soundhole: 72DescriptionStringing: six gut strings
Soundboard: two-piece spruce: medium grain with some bear-claw figure; half-circular decorative inlay along lower edge, comprised of 7 pieces of boxwood or holly with burned edges, surrounded on outside by dark hardwood strip
Back: one-piece maple cut off-the-quarter: very narrow, prominent curl
Ribs: two-piece maple cut off-the-quarter: very narrow, prominent curl; filled holes from later tailpiece, now removed
Head: hardwood painted black; slotted
Neck: hardwood painted black; tapered, rounded heel
Heel cap: none
Binding: maple top binding with angled hardwood trim comprised of light, red, green, and dark brown hardwood pieces, surrounded on each side by thin light and dark hardwood strips
Fingerboard: black-painted maple; 17 brass frets, one replaced with later nickel silver, the top three frets only under upper strings; lower bass part of fingerboard inlaid with two strawberries, strawberry flower, and three leaves, all of abalone, with three nickel-silver wire stems; later silver sticker side dots behind 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th frets
Nut: ebony
Bridge: later; rosewood with pyramid ends; brass saddle; ebony pins with mother-of-pearl eyes
Tuners: two sets of machine tuners with brass plates and rollers and bone heads
Endpin: rosewood with mother-of-pearl eye, possibly later
Rosette: festooned abalone pieces of alternating designs set into black mastic, surrounded on inside edge by binding of alternating light and dark angled hardwood pieces and four-ply alternating light and dark hardwood strips; surrounded on outside edge by alternating light and dark hardwood Squares surrounded on inside by single light hardwood strip and on outside by light and dark hardwood strips; ring comprised of light, red, green, and dark hardwood pieces surrounded on each side by light and dark hardwood strips, set in 5 mm from inner rosette
Varnish: clear on body; black paint on neck and head; later
Linings: spruce
Neck block: spruce
End block: spruce; beveled edges
Top braces: three spruce ladder braces with concave, tapered ends, set into linings
Back braces: three spruce ladder braces with concave, tapered ends, set into linings
DimensionsTotal guitar length: 915 mm
Back length: 441 mm
Upper bout width: 204 mm
Waist width: 167 mm
Lower bout width: 280 mm
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 76 mm
Rib height, at waist: 80 mm
Rib height, at end block: 86 mm
Head length: 165 mm
Head width, top: 61 mm
Head width, bottom: 52 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 310 mm
Neck width, nut: 45 mm
Neck width, heel: 55 mm
Soundhole diameter: 76 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 624 mm
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.
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. 27.

Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979

Object number01289

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