The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #15278   Message #3790521
Posted By: GUEST,Christopher
15-May-16 - 09:55 PM
Thread Name: Help: Berwind Parlor Guitar
Subject: RE: Help: Berwind Parlor Guitar
I realize this is an older post, but I was wondering if anyone ever followed up on history of the J. Berwind parlor guitar. I ask because I have the same model guitar and it is indeed a dead ringer for a Martin 1-26 down to the last detail. It was originally my great grandfather's guitar and he passed it on to my grandad. My grandmother fell for him when she met him at a dance where Grandad was playing it in a ragtime band in the early 1920's. He gave it to me when I was a kid in the late 1950's when my hands got big enough to play. Its a sweet little guitar and I've played it ever since. Grandad wrote inside the wooden coffin case "fine rosewood guitar, father bought in 1871 from professor Schubert at Miss Bayard's music school Phila. for $75.00" Seventyfive bucks was a lot of money for a guitar back then, so it could be he was fuzzy on remembering the price. It was my understanding that J.Berwind was a luthier who made guitars in Philadelphia in the mid to late 1800's, but I've never been able to verify that. In fact this forum is the only place I've come accross any mention of J.Berwind the luthier. I'd be curious to know if anyone else has knowledge about the origins of this guitar.