Archtop Guitar
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Archtop Guitar
- Maker: Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (American, founded Kalamazoo, Michigan 1902)
- Date: ca. 1918
- Geography: Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Spruce, maple, mahogany, ivoroid, mother-of-pearl, nickel silver
- Dimensions: Overall: 38 3/8 × 16 × 20 1/4 in. (97.5 × 40.6 × 51.4 cm)
- Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: Purchase, Amati Gifts, 2013
- Object Number: 2013.128a–c
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
1913
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
1917
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
1916
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
1916
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
1916
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.