Gibson L-Century, ca. 1932
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GUEST:
It was our great-uncle's, from Steubenville, Ohio, and he got it, we believe, brand new in 1929, 1930. And then it's been passed down through the family since then. It's just been sitting in the closet ever since. It's barely been used, I'd say.
APPRAISER:
Do you know the name of it?
GUEST:
Gibson? (both laugh)
APPRAISER:
It is a Gibson. Very good. And it's got a really interesting story. Now, what can you tell me that's kind of different about this instrument?
GUEST:
I would assume the inlaid neck.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
But other than that, I'm not a guitar player, so I wouldn't know.
APPRAISER:
Okay. These were actually introduced by Gibson to commemorate the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, which had the official name of the Century of Progress Exposition.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So it ran from 1933 to 1934. And the Gibson company, in anticipation of this World's Fair, decided to make use of a new material that has a trade name of Pearloid. It is a material made with nitrocellulose.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And it's extremely flammable, and at the time, it was very difficult to produce. So back in the early '30s, this was considered something to be very exotic. The size of the guitar in Gibson's catalogue is designated as the L series. So this one has the official name of the L-Century. It was a very limited production run. It ran about six or seven years before they changed the facing on the fingerboard and the headstock to rosewood. And today, it's actually quite rare to see one in such good condition. Because it's a relatively unstable material, these usually have some kinds of issues with them-- cracks, separations. This guitar has almost no issues.
GUEST:
Right. It has this little nick on the bottom.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And one of the bridge pins went missing at some point.
GUEST:
Yeah, I can see that.
APPRAISER:
But they are beautiful sounding guitars, and this one happens to be the best example I have ever seen. I would give it a retail value of between $6,000 and $6,500.
GUEST:
Okay, great, thank you.
Appraisal Details
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