Re: Your best guess??
"Washburn" was originally a brand name for the big Chicago music firm Lyon & Healy; it was George Lyon's middle name, and L & H used it to label their higher-end line of stringed instruments. The label was later sold to the distributor Tonk Brothers, which went out of business in 1947.
Starting in the mid-1960's, a company out of Chicago called U.S. Music Co. started using the "Washburn" brand name on imported instruments from Asia. It looks pretty clear to me that this is one of those imports, which would preclude it being played in the 1930-40's. If you visit the Washburn Guitars website, you can read a lot of, well, bunk about Washburn's "storied history," but that history pertains to the L & H-made instruments, not the current line of serviceable Asian imports -- which were first made in Japan, then by Samick in Korea, and now in China.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
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Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
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