Martin bowlback (1897)

Martin bowlback (1897)

MF3351 Martin bowlback, 1897, EXC, similar to G-3 but has 26 ribs of alternating rosewood & maple, ivory binding, abalone rosette & inlay, pearl tuner buttons, stamped "C F Martin, Nazareth", original leather case is crumbly......$1500

This is a Martin model G-3 mandolin. The designation of the model changed to Style 3 in the following year. Martin has kept no record of the specifications of the G-3, but a photo survives and is featured on page 178 of Mike Longworth's Martin & Co. Est. 1833. According to Longworth, the specifications of the Style 3 of 1898 included 26 rosewood ribs, but the tuning keys and the shape of the peghead are different from the G-3.

Although the Martin company has never been as successful as Gibson in the mandolin line (or any other, really, except maybe overall quality of every acoustic instrument they ever made), the mandolin has played an important role in the history of that company.

In 1888, when Frank Henry Martin inherited the Martin company from his father, the sole distributor of Martin instruments was the firm of C.A. Zoebisch & Sons of New York City. The mandolin came to popularity in the late 1880s and Frank Martin took an interest in the newly popular instrument. In 1896, Martin & Company became a mandolin manufacturer. It was the reluctance of the senior Mr. Zoebisch to distribute these instruments which caused a break between the two firms and led the Martin Company to take control of its own future.

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