What is this Parlour guitar?

Tomstevens2023 · April 2023

Hi everyone. I bought this off a friend at the same time as an Les Paul Standard (he's not someone who tends to do things by halves) but I have no idea about the heritage. Does anyone know what it is? Any ideas on values?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/198120801@N04/shares/n1919K9522

camf · April 2023

No idea. But I like it.

Kittyfrisk · April 2023

From the general style & that Marquetry inlay it looks European/German, no idea of dates or makers though I'm afraid.
Not dissimilar (but not the same) as https://coololdguitars.com/products/1800s-german-romantic-flat-top-guitar-with-elaborate-pearl-wood-inlay-luthier-set-up

Tomstevens2023 · April 2023

camf said:

No idea. But I like it.

That's what made an expensive purchase even more expensive!

Kittyfrisk said:

From the general style & that Marquetry inlay it looks European/German, no idea of dates or makers though I'm afraid.
Not dissimilar (but not the same) as https://coololdguitars.com/products/1800s-german-romantic-flat-top-guitar-with-elaborate-pearl-wood-inlay-luthier-set-up

Thanks for that, the only other similar guitar (with the star pattern at the bottom) I could find was an old German one (Meinel & Herold were the makers) Anyway, it helps a lot so thanks!

GTC · April 2023

It looks like one of the many old German-made Rene Lacote replicas. I would suspect that a new bridge has been fitted at some point.

PAL · April 2023

I don't think it is a parlour guitar . It's a classical guitar and what is misleading is the bridge pins but you can but classical
strings with ball ends. As someone has said the bridge appears to have been changed and the reason may be because
restringing a classical guitar can be a bit fiddley hence the bridge change to make things easier.
It may turn out to be a parlour guitar but strung with nylon strings !

bertie · April 2023

PAL said:

I don't think it is a parlour guitar . It's a classical guitar and what is misleading is the bridge pins but you can but classical
strings with ball ends. As someone has said the bridge appears to have been changed and the reason may be because
restringing a classical guitar can be a bit fiddley hence the bridge change to make things easier.
It may turn out to be a parlour guitar but strung with nylon strings !

the nut width looks a little narrow to be classical or flamenco to me,

Yorkie · April 2023

Looks like a 3/4 flamenco guitar?

BillDL · April 2023

Without seeing it in person my guess is that it is probably an early 1900s (maybe up to the late 1920s) guitar made to resemble an early to mid 1800s German "romantic" guitar (eg. Meinel & Herold). It looks as though the top has been sanded down at some stage because you can see evidence of old stain and rubbed wood fibres around the edges of the bridge. I think that is the original bridge and that the guitar most likely predates nylon strings (1948) and was intended for gut strings. There are numerous examples of guitars intended for gut (and later nylon) strings to be anchored into pin type bridges by just tying a knot in the end of the string. The gears of the tuning heads are pretty worn, which is a reasonable indicator of age. It's hard to know why somebody has painted matt black on the fretboard side of the nut with the strings in situ. If this guitar is of the age that it is fashioned, the ebony nut would have been thicker. Perhaps somebody knocked it out, fitted a thinner one, filled the gap at the fretboard side with something, and slapped on some black paint to disguise it. There is also a flat-blade woodsdcrew through the peghead face that would tend to indicate a bad repair.

ICBM · April 2023

BillDL said:

It's hard to know why somebody has painted matt black on the fretboard side of the nut with the strings in situ. If this guitar is of the age that it is fashioned, the ebony nut would have been thicker. Perhaps somebody knocked it out, fitted a thinner one, filled the gap at the fretboard side with something, and slapped on some black paint to disguise it.

If that's what I think you're seeing, it's an optical illusion caused by the camera angle - the 'paint' is actually the top surface of the nut, and what looks like the nut is the headstock-side face of it.

Good spot of the screw though, I didn't see that until I zoomed in.

BillDL · April 2023

I really need to go to SpecSavers @ICBM, because I'm still seeing what I thought I was seeing. It's probably one of those things where my view of it will suddenly change and I thereafter won't be able to see it again as I had been seeing it before. Strange.

[EDIT] I see it now. Very weird perspective not helped by the shadow.

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/dd76b87fd1c7a73a1465198ae6039f02e3717c1371b0104abc

ICBM · April 2023

BillDL said:

I really need to go to SpecSavers @ICBM, because I'm still seeing what I thought I was seeing. It's probably one of those things where my view of it will suddenly change and I thereafter won't be able to see it again as I had been seeing it before. Strange.

[EDIT] I see it now. Very weird perspective not helped by the shadow.

Exactly

- I saw it as you did at first, then it suddenly snapped into focus when I zoomed in.

However, I have seen more than one instrument which had been painted black in places - one all over - without taking the strings off, so I wouldn't have been surprised!

GTC · April 2023

The Rene Lacote "Romantic" design has been copied by many makers. It is, in essence, a small bodied classical, usually with a 630mm scale length. The ones more in keeping with the original design do actually have bridge pins despite being nylon strung - but that looks to me like a rather unsympathetic bridge replacement with a standard steel-strung acoustic bridge. It looks like you can see the marks on the top where the original bridge has been removed. It is also not uncommon to see narrower nut widths than usual for a nylon-strung guitar on some old German replicas.

BillDL · April 2023

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/3a3a8b21d40bd8a06162f3ef0c7b941eeff23dcc00681773ad

Tomstevens2023 · April 2023

Thanks everyone, I'll try to upload some more pictures later today now I'm back from holiday. It's all fascinating information though!

bugileman · July 2023

I'd say european also, it looks great. Hope the neck is good on it....

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What is this Parlour guitar?

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