c.1900 Bruno "The Vernon" Size 2 Gut-strung Parlor Guitar

This is an interesting guitar. It's roughly size 2 in nature (12 fret body, 12 5/8" lower bout) and sports a solid spruce top and Brazilian rosewood (the real deal) back and sides. It was brought in by a customer and my work included regluing roughly 1/3 of the back seam, a fret level/dress, hairline crack fills and repairs, a light bridge shave, new nut, and setup. Everything seems more or less original on the guitar save the 60s tuners (this thing begs for a set of antiqued StewMac repro machines).

What's curious about the guitar is that while it bears retailer Bruno's "The Vernon" branding, I have no idea for sure of the maker. Certain features (back strapping braces and ladder bracing style) indicate Chicago-style manufacture similar to late-1800s Lyon & Healy products which is what I assumed this to be at first, but other features (the distinct heel shape, rosewood fretboard's cut style, and bar frets) feel much more "East Coast" (think: Bay State?) in execution. To further muddy the waters, the playful purfling (which would have been brightly-colored to begin with) and some aspects of the design ache of Larson hands. Anyone care to give me suggestions?

Regardless, it's a nice guitar and the mild-v neck feels really comfortable to play (think 20s Martin in cut). While this was played with steel strings for part of its life (and the fretboard yields evidence of a nut extender for Hawaiian-fashion stringing), it was most certainly built for gut (now nylon or synthetic) strings. I've set it back up for those and it's remarkably similar in tone to a period Washburn: elegant, simple, and really easy to record.

New bone nut.

The original bar frets leveled and dressed-up just fine. I like those large-size pearl dots. Rosewood boards were pretty atypical for the time, too, so it's nice to see one in use.

One of these pins looks to be a period replacement. The bridge is ebony and had a fret saddle to begin with, but when I started work on the guitar it had something like a 70s type which was pretty thick. I didn't have anything vintage that was large enough to use for the whole length but I did use two previously-mandolin frets (same period) when reinstalling the fret saddle after shaving the bridge to key-in the action (it's between 1/16" and 3/32" on both sides at the 12th fret). The twin-saddle solution works well as it lets me use that tiny fretwire that looks more period.

There's definitely some pickwear on the top.

Hubba-hubba rosewood, huh?

The neck is mahogany which is also rather unusual for the time. One mostly sees Spanish cedar even on nicer-grade instruments like this one.

This heel style is very peculiar. My wife's 1870s Tilton guitar (made by Haynes/Bay State) has a very similar heel shape and I've seen them here and there before but my mind is slipping on who else might have used this shape.

Note also the two old repairs to the bottom of the heel -- well-executed! -- and the dowel installation (hard to see).

I'm not sure of this big old endpin is original but it looks it.

There's that "The Vernon" label but it looks a little earlier than the ones I'm usually more familiar with (those being 1910s and onward).