Mandolin
Maker
Harmony Company
Maker
Albert Burton Shutt
Date1913
Place MadeTopeka, Kansas, United States, North America
Place MadeChicago, Illinois, United States, North America
ModelStyle A No.2 Professional Model
Serial No.2009
SignedPrinted on glossy paper label, with photograph portrait of Albert Shutt enclosed in oval on left side: Shutt Professional Instrument / Fully Guaranteed / Made During Month of ["MAY" written in blue ink] 19["13" written in blue ink] / Model ["A #2" written in blue ink] No. ["2009" written in blue ink] / THE SHUTT MANDOLIN-GUITAR CO. / Topeka, Kansas, U. S. A. / Patented March 8, 1910 Sept. 19, 1911 / Other Patents PendingThe neck block stamped: MANUFACTURED BY / THE HARMONY CO. / CHICAGO, ILL. / U.S.A.
DescriptionShutt's models were the first archtop guitars and mandolins with f-shaped soundholes made in the US, pre-dating Gibson's introduction of the F-5 and L-5 mandolin and guitar models by at least 14 years.
Body is U. S. Patent D45969
Stringing: four pairs of steel strings
Soundboard: arched, two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: medium grain
Back: slightly arched, two-piece, quarter-cut sycamore
Ribs: three-piece, quarter-cut sycamore bent sides; upper ribs carved from single piece of sycamore, integral with top block
Head and neck: Spanish cedar or mahogany with brown-dyed hardwood center strip; head veneered in black-dyed hardwood or ebony
Heel cap: rosewood
Binding: ivoroid
Fingerboard: red-brown hardwood, possibly walnut, bound in ivoroid; 19 nickel-silver T-frets under lower two strings, 22 nickel-silver frets under upper three strings; mother-of-pearl dots behind 5th, 7th, 10th, 15th, and 17th frets; three mother-of-pearl dots behind 12th fret, the outer two smaller; black plastic side dots behind 5th, 7th, 10th, and 12th frets; fingerboard floats over top after 15th fret
Nut: bone
Bridge: ebony compensating bridge with bone insets at position of each course of strings; bridge is U. S. Patent 1,138,803
Tailpiece: nickel-plated sheet brass
Tuners: nickel-plated brass six-gear worm-gear machine head with brass rollers and ivoroid heads
Endpin: ebony with steel dome-headed slot screw through center
Soundholes: f-holes without binding
Pick guard: black celluloid with circular cutout over upper f-hole eye, mounted on guitar with ebony bracket and nickel-plated steel screw; pick guard is U. S. Patent 1,138,803
Lacquer: black with cracquelure on top; medium orange-brown on back and sides with slight sunburst and cracquelure
Linings: kerfed light hardwood
Neck block: integral with upper ribs; sycamore
End block: not visible
Top bracing: two spruce longitudinal braces between f-holes, fanned slightly from upper to lower bouts
Other: there is a light hardwood inner rib with two holes drilled on each side sectioning off a portion of the lower interior volume of the body. This does not appear in any of Shutt's patents and its purpose is unknown.
DimensionsTotal mandolin length: 652 mm (25-5/8″)
Back length (from base of neck heel to lower end): 307 mm (13-21/32″)
Upper bout width: 202 mm (2-7/16″)
Center bout width: 166 mm (2-7/16″)
Lower bout width: 259 mm (10-1/16″)
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 41 mm (1-7/8″)
Rib height, at waist: 40 mm (1-25/32″)
Rib height, at end block: 38 mm (1-7/8″)
Head length: 159 mm (6-3/8″)
Head width, top: 68 mm (2-7/8″)
Head width, bottom: 50 mm (2-9/32″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 186 mm (6″)
Neck width, nut: 30 mm (1-3/16″)
Neck width, heel: 40 mm (1-1/2″)
Soundhole length: 102 mm (1-5/8″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): E: 350 mm (13-29/32″); G: 354 mm (13-15/16″)
ProvenanceSkinner Auction Online 3406T, Lot #1026, ending on 7/14/2020.
Purchase funds gift of Sue and Larry Sheets, St. Paul, MN, 2020.
Published Referenceshttps://www.harpguitars.net/history/shutt/shutt.htm
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Sue and Larry Sheets, 2020
Object number15569
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