A yard sale find in Western Montana, thanks to my mother, got me researching a brand called “Derr.” Unfortunately the inside label is gone, but otherwise it’s intact. It took a while to find the history (assuming I’m correct).
An earlier eBay sale with an identical looking instrument said “it was made by a small, local company out of Toledo Ohio.” They estimated between 1900 to 1950. Elderly instruments described theirs as “NO NAME MANDOLIN (1920's) (used)...teardrop shaped body, bent spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, black-bound body and soundhole, mahogany neck (slight separation at heel joint), white-bound 20 fret ebonized fingerboard with dot inlays, Brazilian rosewood headstock overlay, recessed tuners with metal cover, clamshell tailpiece, tortoise plastic pickguard, interior label reads "DERR BROS. / WHOLESALE & RETAIL MUSICAL MERCHANDISE / TOLEDO, - OHIO," 1-1/8" nut, ~13" scale, with OHSC (purple lining).”
Mine is lined with brown/tan paper.
Looking in Toledo, I found two brothers. William J. Derr, a multi-instrumentalist who played trombone, tuba, upright bass, guitar and mandolin, and who taught music from about 1902 through 1940. He must have been good, because he organized the 1925 convention of the American Guild of Mandolinists, Banjoists and Guitarists, in Toledo that year, and performed. His brother was a bandmaster and composer for band works, Charles B. Derr. The two published music together as the Derr Brothers. From the Etude magazine, January 1910:
In trying to confirm the instrument as one of William J. Derr’s, I found a grandson with a 1937 photo of one of Derr’s bands. Comparing an instrument in the front row to mine confirmed to me that the Derr on the headstock was associated with Willian J. Derr. In particular the dots on the neck and the name on the headstock (it’s shape) were indicators that the two were the same.
The bio is from the March 1925 edition of Crescendo magazine, page 9 of the pdf.
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fil...mFileId=183896
I am attaching some links to material that shows more about this midwestern musical family, who played, taught, composed, and retailed music in Toledo in the first 40 years of the 20th century.
Crescendo magazine, page 5:
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fil...mFileId=183903
Music Trade Review, May 30, 1925, talking about the convention for which Derr was manager. https://mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1925-80-22/131/
History from 1910, which calls William J. Derr a music retailer. https://books.google.com/books?id=fz...%80%9D&f=false
The Talking Machine World trade magazine June 15, 1925, talking about the convention and mentioning Derr. https://www.americanradiohistory.com...-Page-0163.pdf
How it plays:
This was a student instrument, (probably) made for William J. Derr to sell in his store, to students he himself would teach. It was a bowlback in an era when Gibson and Lyon & Healy carved mandolins dominated Derr’s band (I’m guessing at brands, see the 1937 photo.) That said, it is easier to play than my modern Chinese F-5 imitation, the sound is decent and the action is lower than any modern student mandolin I have touched. If I have one complaint, it is that the fret I use to tune a course of strings against the next course is off... doesn’t bother me most of the time, but sometimes the notes are sour.
If anyone else finds more about Derr or his mandolins, or has other ideas about what I’ve concluded, I’m all ears.
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