Harwood mandolins and guitars

[KanMando]

Here's a brief 1932 article on Jenkins new building in Kansas City also located on Walnut Street.

This was a wonderful building. It's on the national register of historic places. Sadly, only the art-deco facade remains today. I was talking to my father about the building a while back and he said that it was one of the first "air conditioned" buildings in Kansas City. This was done by having huge blocks of ice delivered daily and placed in a basement room. I don't know how the cool air was circulated to the rest of the building. Anyway, this didn't last long. Once my great grandfather saw what the ice was costing him, he stopped the practice. Another funny thing about the building was the clandestine employee lunch room. The elevators only went to the ninth floor, but there actually was a partial tenth floor that could be reached by a stairway. The lunchroom was up there, and they had great, cheap food cooked on the premises. Apparently, the Kansas City Health Department never caught on.

The musical merchandise department, where the stringed instruments were sold, was located on the mezzanine that over-looked the main floor. It was all wood-paneled.

Bob

[KanMando]

I wonder if Loar ever visited that location. He toured all over; I would think he might've stopped by large Gibson distributors to see how things were going. Any listings of Loar's group playing in the area?

delsbrother - I did a quick search on the Music Trade Review acrchive and found this from May 1924:

MTR

The story is in the right-hand column with the headline "Gibsonians To Go On Widely Extended Tour". They didn't make it to Kansas City on this trip. I'll do some more digging to see if I can find whether they ever came to KC.

Bob

[pfox14]

Bob, do you know where Jenkins had its factory? I would imagine that it was Kansas City. Was the Harwood line made in the late 1800s thru WW1 or thereabouts? No mention of the Harwood line in any of the 20s or 30s info I have. I did find a couple of Harwood/Jenkins ads from the 1890s to the early 1900s.

[brunello97]

Nice description of a nice-looking building, thanks. Happy to see that it hasn't escaped the wrecking ball, though the storefronts look empty on GoogleMap. Is the 'theater' inside still intact?

Mick

[KanMando]

Bob, do you know where Jenkins had its factory? I would imagine that it was Kansas City. Was the Harwood line made in the late 1800s thru WW1 or thereabouts? No mention of the Harwood line in any of the 20s or 30s info I have. I did find a couple of Harwood/Jenkins ads from the 1890s to the early 1900s.

pfox - the factory was located at 1417 Walnut. We think the original shop was probably located on the top floor of the store when the store was at 921-923 Main Street. I just read a reference to the factory having been built in 1893, so they were up and running when their agreement with the Haynes company ended in 1894. We don't know exactly how long the Harwood factory was located at 1417 Walnut, but Bill Graham uncovered a story in the Kansas City Star from 1911. There was a fire in the Jenkins store, which at that time was located at 1015 Walnut. The story mentions that the guitar and mandolin factory, which was located behind the store, was not damaged. This being the case, the factory must have been on Grand Avenue, the next street east of Walnut, and was separated from the store by an alley. This is the last reference we have found for the Harwood factory.

[KanMando]

Nice description of a nice-looking building, thanks. Happy to see that it hasn't escaped the wrecking ball, though the storefronts look empty on GoogleMap. Is the 'theater' inside still intact?

Mick

It didn't entirely escape the wrecking ball. What used to be the store is now a parking garage with a beautiful art-deco stone and wrought iron facade. So no, the theater is gone. I used to play my piano recitals in that theater.

Bob

[Pete Summers]

I remember that Jenkins building on Walnut St. very well. I spent many an hour as a teenager trying out records and albums in the playing booths they had on the first floor. I also gave a knee knocking piano "recital" in their auditorium as a kid.

Jenkins also published a lot of sheet music, especially ragtime around the turn of the 20th century. It was a wonderful music store and a Kansas City landmark. Too bad it's gone. They don't have music stores like that anymore. They sold everything musical.

[KanMando]

delsbrother - I did a quick search on the Music Trade Review acrchive and found this from May 1924:

MTR

The story is in the right-hand column with the headline "Gibsonians To Go On Widely Extended Tour". They didn't make it to Kansas City on this trip. I'll do some more digging to see if I can find whether they ever came to KC.

Bob

OK - Here we go. The Gibsonians did come to Kansas City in May 1926 in conjunction with the Silver Jubilee of the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists, and Guitarists. Here's the story from the MTR archive. Gibson and the Gibsonians are mentioned on the both pages of the article. Jenkins Music Co. is also mentioned. Of course, LLoyd Loar had left Gibson by this time.

MTR 1
MTR 2

[brunello97]

Here's another Harwood bowlback, this from a shop down in SA.

http://www.guitartex.com/instruments...e-guitars.html

Classic Harwood pickguard shape but the headstock is a curious blend of a straight shape and familiar end profile. Also, has the "Martin-esque" head/neck detail that shows up now and again. No serial number noted, unfortunately.

Mick

[Jim Garber]

Classic Harwood pickguard shape but the headstock is a curious blend of a straight shape and familiar end profile.

Headstock looks like Bohmann... wasn't there a connection? Didn't JB make some Harwoods?

[brunello97]

Headstock looks like Bohmann... wasn't there a connection? Didn't JB make some Harwoods?

Don't know…, but would be interested in finding out. Most of the Bohmanns I have in my files are the more extreme design examples. Jim, don't you have (or have had) a Harwood? Seems, I recall.

Mick

[Jim Garber]

I used to have a nice Harwood bowlback but I got a call a few years ago from the prop guy for Jersey Boys. They were looking for a mandolin to played in an Italian restaurant. The Harwood was one that was readily playable and they accepted my price, so it went.

[brunello97]

I used to have a nice Harwood bowlback but I got a call a few years ago from the prop guy for Jersey Boys. They were looking for a mandolin to played in an Italian restaurant. The Harwood was one that was readily playable and they accepted my price, so it went.

Cool. Did you ever see the footage? I've heard of the show, but have never seen it.

Was it this one in the upper left? Obverse looks like the same model as mine. Weirder coincidences have occurred… Mine's missing its FLA extension, or whatever it is they call that dangling bit of Missouri (which is probably more appropriate.)

Mick

[Jim Garber]

Yeah, that was the one. I never took any other pics of it.

[KanMando]

I've set up a WordPress site for the Harwood instruments. It's a work in progress, but I do have all the Harwood pages from the 1895 J. W. Jenkins' Sons catalog posted. I will add the Clifford, Washington, and other stringed instruments eventually. Here's the link:

http://harwoodguitar.wordpress.com/

Bob

[brunello97]

Looks great, Bob, a nice start for your project. I will have to map these against the Harwood mandolin images I've collected. What do you suppose they mean by 'oval ebony fingerboard'? A radiused fingerboard? With this catalog as a sole guide my Harwood looks like a hybrid of a Style 40 body with at 45-50 type headstock. The fretboard is quite flat though. I look forward to seeing the site as it grows!

Mick

[KanMando]

Mick - as I've mentioned on several occasions, we've never seen any two Harwoods alike, and other than the bottom of the line parlor guitars, we've never seen an instrument that conforms exactly to the ones shown in my catalog. That your mandolin looks like a hybrid of the Style 40-45-50 does not surprise me. I'm guessing that the "oval ebony fingerboard" means a radiused board. I just took a look at my bowlback, and if it has a radius, it's very slight. On the other hand, the guitar fingerboards are highly radiused. When I had my No. 6 model re-fretted, Mike Horan at Mass Street Music flattened the board to a more modern, flatter radius.

Bob

[bgmando]

Regarding the bowlback used in Jersey Boys, when Bob and I first started working on the Harwood project, I mentioned it to Joe Payne, who has played the guitar parts in the pit band and had bit parts onstage in Jersey Boys from its opening show on Broadway and continuing.
He mentioned they had a Harwood bowlback in the instrument lineup and he had played it. Small world.

bg

[Matt the Mead Maker]

Could someone please post a picture of a Harwood label that would go inside the instrument? I'm repairing a Harwood mandolinetto that's missing it's label and has a crack running down the middle of the back plate. I'd like to put a label in there to hide the repair work visible through the sound hole. I'll remove any serial number type of info. Thanks a million!

[KanMando]

Matt - we've never seen a Harwood with a paper label. On the guitars, the double oval with "Harwood New York" is stamped on the center brace of the back, clearly visible through the sound hole, and the triangle logo is stamped on the neck block. On the mandolins and guitars, the "Harwood New York" oval logo is also stamped on the back of the headstock. Photos of the logos are on post #40 and #75 of this thread.

Bob

[brunello97]

Matt, would you post some pictures of the Harwood mandolinetto when you get a chance? Either in before or after condition (or ideally both). I look forward to seeing the revitalized instrument...

Thanks!

Mick

[Matt the Mead Maker]

You bet - I'll definitely post before and after pics here. I'd rather wait until the project is complete because having such a beautiful instrument in disrepair drives me nuts and I'd feel better if I could show you all the final project. I'll probably include a video so you can hear how it sounds.

Thanks for the info on the labels, Bob. This thread has been really helpful!

[Diamond Dave]

New to this site...any info would be greatly appreciated...

I received this Mandolin about 40 yrs ago from my G. Grand Mother who received it from her cousin when she had passed in the mid 60's. I had searched several years before but got nowhere....It is a Harwood, S/N # 20516
Would like to know what year it was made and approx. worth....FYI, not wanting to sell it.

Thx

[bgmando]

We've never had a serial number list to match up with production years. We're hoping for some receipts to show up in a case someday. For sure probably one from between 1895 and 1911.
Your mando is quite similar to the one owned by Bob Jenkins.
Values vary greatly. But it's usually in low three figures.
Thanks for posting yours, and be sure and check out the Fretboard Journal story on Harwoods.

Bill Graham

[Charles Johnson]

Now for something completely different: