Archtop Guitar

Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

ca. 1918 · Spruce, maple, mahogany, ivoroid, mother-of-pearl, nickel silver · Musical Instruments

This is a Gibson L-4 model archtop guitar with a light to dark red sunburst finish. The guitar has an arched top and back a design patented by Orville Gibson in 1898. Five businessmen bought the name and patent from Orville Gibson in 1902 and started The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The L-4 model was the top of the line model guitar sold by Gibson in the first decades of the twentieth century until they introduced the L-5 guitar, with f-holes instead of round sound hole, in the 1920s. The instrument has six steel strings. The guitar has an oval sound hole with decorative inlaid. The front, back, and fingerboard are bound in ivoroid. The instrument has an oval sound hole with decorative inlaid wood and ivoroid binding. The neck is made of mahogany, the fingerboard is ebony and extends to the soundhole and ends in a point. There are twenty nickel-silver frets with mother-of-pearl position dots on the fingerboard and upper edge of the neck. Floating bridge, trapeze tailpiece, raised pickguard with two metal supports. Headstock front and back veneered and inlaid with mother-of-pearl words “The Gibson.” Ivoroid machine tuners.

Artist

Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Date

ca. 1918

Medium

Spruce, maple, mahogany, ivoroid, mother-of-pearl, nickel silver

Culture

American

Department

Musical Instruments

Credit line

Purchase, Amati Gifts, 2013