Marwin "Deluxe Custom Built"

[Sue Rieter]

I went to go look at this today (because it was local) but did not buy it. It was in good shape (except for the banjo bridge), but did not sound so great, maybe partly because of said bridge. Definitely ply, with an elevated fretboard extension. Headstock had a decal on it with "Marwin Deluxe Custom Built"

When I showed the pics to him earlier, Jake W thought ply SOL genre, 50's. Owner thought it was older than that. NickR thought possibly as late as early 50's due to the tuners. There was no clamp mark on the neck block or date stamp. One brace and the linings were smooth.

Pictures aren't so hot, I tweaked them, but there's only so much one can do.

Though it did not call out to me "take me home", I am still kind of curious about it. Anybody have any thoughts?

[NickR]

Jake Wildwood has a Marwin guitar date stamped by Harmony in 1939. I would guess that at some point, Marwin mandolin production which was by Harmony in the 1930s moved to whoever made SOL instruments and that suggests, the 1940s. I would reckon, that this mandolin is from the 40s or possibly as late as the early 50s- it has the oblong tuner plates not the bell ended Waverly tuners that are regularly seen on the 50s instruments. Along with the ply body this mandolin has that low end tailpiece which augments the lower end spec of the mandolin. It is reckoned that Marwin was a Tonk Bros brand as seen from catalogue entries. Searching for guitars branded Marwin, I found the ubiquitous United parlour guitar branded Marwin- made in the 50s and that may help buttress the view that some SOL style mandolins were made by United if that company was also making guitars for Marwin at the same time. There is a Kay made Marwin archtop tenor guitar on eBay right now and I have seen other Kay Marwin guitars which makes me wonder if Harmony was replaced by Kay and then WW2 stopped activities in the main and at some point afterwards, United was chosen as the main manufacturer for the brand. This link shows a Harmony archtop, the United guitar and an SOL style mandolin- which as I suggest may have also come from United but the jury is out on that assertion. No Kay made instrument is shown but those I have seen suggest early 1940s. https://jedistar.com/marwin/

[Eric Platt]

Also agree it's by whomever made the SOL instruments. Very similar to one I have with a Stadium decal. Mine is later with the bell end tuners. All laminate construction and very meh tone.

[Richard500]

Also agree it's by whomever made the SOL instruments. Very similar to one I have with a Stadium decal. Mine is later with the bell end tuners. All laminate construction and very meh tone.

I’d like to have Meh-Tone on a headstock!

[MikeEdgerton]

I believe that is a 50's model, all laminated. It appeared to be a last hurrah for the genre.

[NickR]

I have posted this before- the 1959 Peter Sorkin catalogue featuring the mandolins from the brands he had at that time- Blue Comet and Strad-O-Lin. No oval hole SOL is shown- the Blue Comet models are the oval hole offerings in this catalogue, it seems.
Those Blue Comet mandolins get sold as 1930s items but that's down to that erroneous Wiki entry, I suppose.

[Sue Rieter]

I believe that is a 50's model, all laminated. It appeared to be a last hurrah for the genre.

Sadly, it did not motivate me to say, "hurrah."

[MikeEdgerton]

I have posted this before- the 1959 Peter Sorkin catalogue featuring the mandolins from the brands he had at that time- Blue Comet and Strad-O-Lin. No oval hole SOL is shown- the Blue Comet models are the oval hole offerings in this catalogue, it seems.
Those Blue Comet mandolins get sold as 1930s items but that's down to that erroneous Wiki entry, I suppose.

It wasn't sold with the Strad-O-Lin brand on it. Sorkin might not have even been in the equation on this. In other words, the manufacturer sold it to whomever ordered it and unless Sorkin owned the Marwin name they surely wouldn't be in the catalog.

[MikeEdgerton]

Sadly, it did not motivate me to say, "hurrah."

The laminated later models have never given me any warm and fuzzy's.

[NickR]

If Tonk Bros sold the Marwin mandolin, then Sorkin was not involved but we get a snapshot of what was being sold in 1959 and maybe the oval hole models were finished by then and I imagine not long afterwards the instruments were made in the far east.

[MikeEdgerton]

If Tonk Bros sold the Marwin mandolin, then Sorkin was not involved but we get a snapshot of what was being sold in 1959 and maybe the oval hole models were finished by then and I imagine not long afterwards the instruments were made in the far east.

The problem is not understanding the state of distributors in those days. Sorkin could have been selling off stock that was a decade or more old. Nobody was doing any FIFO or monitoring inventory like they do now. If they still had some it was in the print catalog and just because Sorkin wasn't selling oval hole mandolins doesn't mean somebody else wasn't. The manufacturer could have dumped them to Tonk to clear their inventory.

[NickR]

I agree there may have been oval hole mandolins but they just weren't current as per the 1959 Peter Sorkin catalogue and as you mention, there could have been old stock as well that was sold on to whoever wanted to shift it. I think that some 1950s Tonk Bros catalogues are in the subscription library of one collection but I have not seen any pages on the internet. Dick Knight who made a mandolin for me 40 years ago had a vast stash of old 1930s, 40s and 50s catalogues and he gave them away and I think they formed the nucleus for one of these sites but he would not have had Tonk Bros ephemera, I am sure.

[cerebarat]

S Nathaniel Adams has Marwin listed as a brand of Barth-Feinberg from the 1940s-1960s.

[NickR]

It is possible that Tonk Bros sold the brand or that attribution to them is incorrect. One thing for sure, is that Harmony was making Marwin branded instruments from the early 1930s. There is some info on Barth-Feinberg at this link but it does not mention Marwin just Pennant- an ukulele brand.
https://sites.google.com/site/ukulel...n-and-feinberg

[MikeEdgerton]

S Nathaniel Adams has Marwin listed as a brand of Barth-Feinberg from the 1940s-1960s.

I am not familiar with the company but a quick search brings them up several places as a distributor. Mugwumps has them as Barth, Lutchen & Feinberg, a distributor circa 1925 in New York and it appears they were around until the mid 60's. I don't recognize the company that bought them but I do recognize some of their other brand names in the brass and percussion industry so they would be a perfect owner of something like this. More likely the brand name of a smaller distributor than a larger manufacturer based on the number of examples that have popped up here over the years. Thanks for posting that.

[cerebarat]

Marwin was listed in their 1951 catalog:

http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_main...can_marwin.php

they also retailed harmony in that catalog as a seperate line:

http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_page...ny_bf_1951.php

[MikeEdgerton]

Marwin was listed in their 1951 catalog:

http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_main...can_marwin.php

they also retailed harmony in that catalog as a seperate line:

http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_page...ny_bf_1951.php

Very cool. That answers that.

[cerebarat]

With a small bit jump of logic it can all be tied together. This is a very good article on the history of the Tonk Brothers:

https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/...ost/tonk-bros/

towards the end it says:

"We weren’t able to determine when the Tonk Brothers Company published its final catalog, but their share of the national marketplace clearly began to shrink by the Second World War, and by 1950, the company appears to have fallen into the stable of the Indiana music house, C. G. Conn, Ltd."

So the Marwin name having been originally owned by Tonk then purchased by Barth-Feinberg sometime in or before 1950 is believable. New York jobbers buying packages of trade names seems quite common, for example Lipsky with the Orpheum brands or United (as the Fretted Instrument Co) buying up the Oscar Schmidt ones before moving them onto Harmony almost immediately.

[MikeEdgerton]

With a small bit jump of logic it can all be tied together. This is a very good article on the history of the Tonk Brothers:

https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/...ost/tonk-bros/

towards the end it says:

"We weren’t able to determine when the Tonk Brothers Company published its final catalog, but their share of the national marketplace clearly began to shrink by the Second World War, and by 1950, the company appears to have fallen into the stable of the Indiana music house, C. G. Conn, Ltd."

So the Marwin name having been originally owned by Tonk then purchased by Barth-Feinberg sometime in or before 1950 is believable. New York jobbers buying packages of trade names seems quite common, for example Lipsky with the Orpheum brands or United (as the Fretted Instrument Co) buying up the Oscar Schmidt ones before moving them onto Harmony almost immediately.

I think we would have seen Tonk Bros. products with the marque and not Harmony products from the 30's on. It wasn't a brand name worth paying anything for. They could have called what they were selling anything they wanted to. I seriously doubt a small to mid level distributor would have invested money in a brand name that wasn't really a household name.

[NickR]

Sterling was a big Tonk Bros brand and we see mandolins- Harmony Shutt style models and Regal made mandolins sold with the Sterling brand in the 20s and 30s. What I thought was interesting is this United made Sterling branded mandolin- or possibly made by Fretted Instrument Co. before that organization folded the former OS and went on as United. The retailer has dated it to 1965 which is not correct- worm under tuners- but this retailer often seems to have some hazy attributions. I wonder if this was sold by Tonk Bros but that firms low end mandolins were normally Regal made. Maybe in the Depression era United offered a better deal but I suppose it might be possible that if Tonk Bros had owned Marwin but unloaded various brands to another East Coat company, that firm may have had links to Fretted Music Co/United in New Jersey. Two things- the Sterling decal does not mention TBCo while $400 is insane!
https://rivingtonguitars.com/collect...40235765039202
Here is another Sterling- made by either Harmony or Regal and it has TBCo on the decal and another optimistic seller!
https://reverb.com/item/17890201-tb-...ogany-mandolin

[Sue Rieter]

Very interesting discussion, guys.
I kind of wish I took a closer look at the decal on that Marwin, or even asked the owner if I could take a picture of it.