A Stamp of Approval
Labels and Stamps on C. F. Martin Guitars
C.F. Martin generally stamped their flat top guitars in three places, on the neck block, on the inside of the back of the guitar, usually on the center strip, and on the back of the headstock of guitars with cedar or mahogany necks, or on the back of the guitar near the neck block on guitars with ebonized necks.
Early Martin guitars are stamped "C.F. Martin, New York" in all three places. Beginning in 1867, the year Martin took on partners and incorporated, the headstock stamp remained the same, but the other two stamps read "C.F. Martin & Co., New York". Even after Martin moved to his new home in Cherry Hill, near Nazareth, Pennsylvania, his guitars were sold through a representative in New York, so the New York stamp remained. In 1898, after this sales arrangement disolved, the Martin company began stamping their guitars "C.F. Martin, Nazareth, PA."
In 1898, Martin also began numbering their guitars, beginning with number 8000, an estimate of the number of instruments produced to that date, stamping the serial numbers on the neck block below the "C. F. Martin & Co." stamp.
The earliest Martins have paper labels, sometimes accompanied by an outer back stamp as well. Martin also occasionally used paper labels on instruments built for dealers, or other special editions.
Finally, Martins supplied with coffin cases had a label glued to the inside of the top of the case which indicated the style and size of the guitar. Surprisingly, a fairly large percentage of the original cases have survived with the labels still glued to the cases over a century later. If the guitar were separated from the case, however, there would be no designation of the style number and size. In 1934, Martin began stamping the style name and size on the neck block below the serial number. For a short time in 1900, Martin also stamped the serial numbers of some guitars on the end of the headstock.
Paper Labels
I've located Hudson Street Martins with similar labels and the following numbers:
No. 1114 C. F. Martin Museum. Raised ivory fingerboard & neck, tapered fretboard
No. 1160 Private Collection. Flat ebony fingerboard, round end fretboard
No. 1168 Sold by Gruhn Guitars, Nashville. Raised ivory fingerboard, tapered fretboard
No. 1173 Fred Oster, Vintage Instruments, Philadelphia. Flat ebony fingerboard, round end fretboard
No. 1176 Illustrated above, Raised ebony fingerboard, round end fretboard
No. 1188 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Raised ebony fingerboard, tapered fretboard
Headstock Stamps
The first Martin logos appearing on the front of Martin headstocks in 1933 were not decals, but were printed in gold leaf. These logos can be identified by the lack of the black outline seen on the later decals.
1933 Martin 0-17
The solid gold leaf logo was replaced by a gold decal with a black outline.
Until 1934, the front decal was used in conjunction with the stamped logo on the back of the headstock which was still used in this transitional period.
According to the revised edition of Longworth, "the second version of the logo, with black edging, soon came in two sizes. The large size was used on the solid headstock, while the smaller size was used on slotted headstocks, and also on mandolin and ukulele headstocks."
Here you can see two of the same model, both from 1934, presumably the year they changed, one with the larger, and one with the smaller logo.
Here's the earlier, larger logo on a '34 00-40H:
Here's the later, smaller logo on a 1962 000-28C.
Note that on the "G" and "C" Model Martins, built for gut or nylon strings after the introduction of steels strings, Martin followed the tradition of leaving the head plates on classical guitars blank by placing the decal on the back side of the headstock.
The Southern California Music Company requested the the Martin name not appear on their early Hawaiian guitars, preferring to use the name "Nunes", which was respected among Hawaiian players.
During the years, some of their guitars had the SoCal name stamped on the back of the headstock, some had the Martin name, some both, and some none at all.
The Wurlitzer ompany chose to use both their name and the Martin name.
The Grinnell Store in Detroit, a major Martin dealer, chose the name "Wolverine" for their guitars.
The Oliver Ditson Company had their name stamped on the back of headtocks.
This 1896 Martin 0-42 has a "Nazareth, PA", which is unusual for a pre-1898 Martin.
Outside Back Stamps
Inside Back Stamps
Neck Block Stamps
Many neck block stamps from the late 19th century are upside down, such as this one.
Signatures
Many, but not all, Martin guitars built between the 1870's and thesecond decade of the 20th centtury are dated in pencil on the underside of the top. The format varies greatly, with some initialed by F.H. Martin or a shop foreman, some containing the day and month, and some showing the year only.
Repair signature
The guitar below is a rare example of an instrument with a repair that was documented, in this case by shop foreman John Deichmann, the creator of the Dreadnaught and a number of Martin's other greatest achievements.
Case Labels
Martin used a number of various labels in their cases, with minor differences in typefaces and design.
c. 1870's 2 1/2 - 26
unknown date 0-28
1888 2 1/2 -17
1893 2 -1/2 17
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