1927 Folk Art Weissenborn-style Guitar
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GUEST:
This is my grandfather's guitar. He made it, I believe, when he was around 18 years old, in 1927.
APPRAISER:
1927 would have been a time period when America was going through a huge craze for Hawaiian music. And the thing that makes this so unusual and cool is it's a fabulous and playable instrument. Some people call them lap guitars. The shape of this guitar body looks more like something that has a European origin, and the shape of the headstock is very unique, also. But what he does is he takes something that is really a very simple thing and makes it into an object of beauty. Does the barber pole inlay, and those little diamonds and dots in the neck are what you would normally see. And he made it out of the right kind of woods. Normally, to get a good sound out of something like this, you would do the back and the sides out of some kind of hard wood, and in this case, he used mahogany on the sides, and it looks like a piece of cherry on the back. But what he did in the front here is he used very nice quality spruce. It has appeal both as a folk art object, because it's very decorative, but somebody that was a musician, this would appeal to them also.
GUEST:
Was this a common thing, for people to make their own guitars back then?
APPRAISER:
It wouldn't be unusual that he would make something, but what's unusual is that he was able to do it to this level of quality and that it's held up so well. Sometimes, you get lucky and the person that made it puts their name inside there. It's got your grandfather's name and the date, 1927, and it says, "Wisconsin." Have you ever heard anybody play it?
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
Most people think that an instrument like this was meant to be played like a regular guitar. What you actually would do is play it like this. (demonstrating)
APPRAISER:
Listen to that. (laughs) Now, what they would do is take these bars, and that's what makes it Hawaiian music. (plays guitar in slide style) It's just got a beautiful sound, and we think, as a piece of folk art, that you should put an insurance value on this of $3,000.
GUEST:
Really? I'm so surprised. Thank you so much.
Appraisal Details
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