VINTAGE MAILORDER GUITAR IDENTIFICATION PORTABLE

The earliest photo I can find with painted pennant fret markers is a Harmony 1940s parlour guitar (left) A 1960s вЂGalianoвЂ™ badged parlour guitar by United Guitars or Harmony (centre) Lyra by United Guitars/Harmony 1960s with the addition of dots next to the pennant fret markers.ДЄ Lyra guitar ebay purchase of seven years ago has posed more questions than answers for me as to who manufactured these guitars. Harmony became the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the early to the mid 20 th century until they ceased production in 1975. The Harmony Company was founded in Chicago in 1892 by William Schultz another German immigrant from Hamburg who had formerly worked for Lyon & Healy.

I have discovered several examples of Harmony made Lyras from the 1930s before the Oscar Schmidt factory ceased production in 1939 which leads me to conclude the Lyra brand may have been sub-licensed to Harmony prior to 1939. It appears that Harmony continued to use sporadic use the Lyra brand from 1940 onwards with Bruno & Sons still embedded as distributors.

My own Lyra parlour guitar dates from the 1950s or 1960s and falls outside of the Oscar Schmidt production era which ceased at the end of the 1930s when the rights to that company name and its main brands which included Stella, Sovereign & Lyra were acquired by the Harmony Company in 1939. Lyra headstock with nailed on tuners and stampted inside made in the U.S.A. market place where the demand for affordable instruments increased dramatically with the rapid population growth of North America. Another interesting aspect in the evolution of the American parlour guitar is that its origins have a strong Germanic connection as most of the manufacturers, their associates & workers were 19 th century German immigrants like Schmidt, Bruno & Martin who brought their considerable musical instrument expertise to bear upon a burgeoning U.S.

VINTAGE MAILORDER GUITAR IDENTIFICATION PORTABLE

The history of these guitars and their associated brands offers an intriguing insight into forging the crucible for early American music to be made on a loud small portable instrument that holds such a long lasting fascination, for both guitar players & music aficionados. The вЂLyraвЂ™ guitar & musical instrument brand made by the Oscar Schmidt company of Jersey City, New Jersey stretches back over a hundred years and was distributed throughout North America by wholesalers and marketing agents Charles Bruno & Sons of New York who also had a brief partnership with Christian F.

stamped parlour guitar with its distinctive deco style painted on pennant fret markers and finger plate, a descendant of the Oscar Schmidt family of parlour & acoustic guitars which were played by so many blues pioneers.

Vintage mailorder guitar identification