Ephemera: Dating Game


Swooning to his lady-love! Late 1940s, Kay archtop...



From Vermontville, Michigan to Vermont! Eh? 1890s -- Lyon & Healy banjo.


Around the picnic table in Bulgaria -- 1900s.


Nice Lange banjo, there, buddy! 1920s.


Another classy banjo -- with an archtop tonering. 1920s.


I wouldn't mind joining as the Happy Fifth! 1920s.


Waiting on a train? Harmony mahogany uke, 1920s.


The disembodied hand of ukulele strumming... 1920s.


Note the cast aluminum bridge and raised nut of an Oahu-branded Hawaiian guitar -- 1930s.


Dobro-riffic! 1930s.


These guys are from the Texas A&M Engineering Summer Camp. Banjo interest. 1930s.


Tenting it! Looks like a '40s Kay archtop so it's safe to bet that this is a mid-late '40s shot.
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Nick R said…
An eBay photo story. I was interested in a Cromwell archtop on eBay and it was for sale locally. I visited the seller- it had its top cut into for a pick up, a cheap 1960s tailpiece and a large hand made replacement pickguard. Anyway it was a nice box- it was probably carved but the mods gave me a top price to bid and it roared away above that in the close. A while later it reappeared on YouTube with its new owner- he had replaced the pick up and discarded the pickguard but it had the same replaced tailpiece and other identifying aspects. Not long after seeing it, I was looking at French guitars on the web and clicked on a photo that took me to ebay in France. Elsewhere on the auction page was an auction of a photo showing two men playing archtops. I clicked on it- and I was whisked to eBay in the UK. The photo, apparently, was of two men playing guitars ( the other was a Czech archtop also 1930s) at a wedding in London in the 1950s and it was that Cromwell- same pickguard but with that 1930s Gibson T-shaped tailpiece- the one with the pointed ends and central diamond. I left a message with the YouTube video poster and he replied to say it was his guitar-and he had bought the photo.The seller told me it had been her father's guitar for years- I don't think the man in the photo was him- she did not look like him at all- he may have been the guy who owned it before her father. Spooky!
September 9, 2019 at 12:17 PM
Nick R said…
I think lover boy is toting a very desirable Harmony Cremona VN:

http://harmony.demont.net/model.php?id=51

September 9, 2019 at 3:23 PM
Jake Wildwood said…
Looks like you're right -- the body shape really threw me off because it looks like the narrow-waisted/squared-shoulder Kay bodies in the pic. Cool!
September 9, 2019 at 6:59 PM
Nick R said…
It does not matter if he fails to woo the maiden as he has a $50 box in 1940. He has lost the pickguard which is a bit negligent of him!
September 10, 2019 at 10:41 AM
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