Vega Style # 94 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar , c. 1910
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Item # 8948
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Vega Style # 94 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, c. 1910, made in Boston, Mass., natural finish, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, spruce top; mahogany neck with ebony fingrboard., original black hard shell case.
This guitar is one of the loveliest and most elegant American guitars we have seen, a Vega Model 94 Concert size flat-top from the early 1910s. This beautiful instrument is a veritable feast of fine materials and artistic design with highly figured Brazilian rosewood on the back and sides, a very tight-grained spruce top, and fantastic engraved pearl inlay in the bound ebony fingerboard. This instrument appears in at least one Vega catalog from around 1910-12, and is the next to the top of the line and the only model with the full engraved shaped pearl inlay long prized by collectors of Boston banjos. The label is missing (there is a small bit of glue residue inside where it once was), but this is absolutely a Vega instrument.
Although the name is only passingly familiar to most guitarists, Vega in their heyday designed and built the finest banjos of the early 20th century and a host of interesting mandolin family instruments as well as a full line of guitars. At the time Vega was one of America's most prestigious fretted marques, the only large-scale 20th century survivor of Boston's once-thriving 19th century instrument industry. Early Vega guitars are extremely well-made but of generally conventional design, and usually plainly ornamented. Only occasionally does one like this surface adorned with the beautiful engraved pearl inlay typical of the company's high-end banjos.
This inlay is in the style created by an Italian immigrant named Icilio Consalvi, whose skill in hand engraving pearl raised the level of that art to a height that has, in many minds, never been bettered. Consalvi worked for several Boston firms from the 1890s, but his best remembered designs appeared on the Fairbanks and subsequent Fairbanks/Vega banjos. The fingerboard of this guitar has a number of typical Consalvi style designs; the best feature may be the bound inlaid headstock with the engraved figural pearl character familiar from high-end Vega banjos.
The body is quite fancy as well. The top and soundhole ring are bound and bordered with elaborate half-herringbone and chain marquetry. The back is bound and trimmed in half-herringbone with an elaborate backstrip. The ebony bridge is adorned with pearl inserts on the ends engraved in a floral pattern that -- to modern eyes anyway -- looks rather like cannabis leaves. All workmanship is exceptionally neat both inside and out.
This guitar has a VERY lightly ladder-braced top, with tiny finely shaped delicate braces by the soundhole and bridge and a tiny thin bridgeplate. This is definitely a gut string guitar, not designed for or suited to steel string in any form. This is typical of high end guitars of the period, including Martins, and many were ruined long ago when strung with steel strings and left to pull themselves apart. This guitar is a very rare thing; an amazing survivor of a long-bygone age, and a playable ticket back to pre-WWI America in a sunny parlor in Boston...or Willoughby.
Overall length is 38 in. (96.5 cm.), 13 5/8 in. (34.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 1/16 in. (10.3 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 13/16 in. (46 mm.).
This guitar remains in stunningly fine original condition, especially for an instrument well over 100 years old. The finish has light checking overall but there is hardly any evidence of play and only the lightest handling wear. There is one deep check in the top finish bedind the bridge that looks like a spruce grain split but does not go down through the wood. The back shows a few scratches and scuffs and there is one dink into the back of the neck. There is a small chip repair to the side above the neck heel, probably from a neck reset and some tiny chips to the bridge. The nut is newer; the original ivory nut is still in the case but warped beyond redemption. One bridgepin is not original but a very close match; all others and the endpin are original.
This is one of the best preserved early 20th century guitars we have ever seen, a true time capsule. We note again this is a GUT STRING GUITAR. It is lightly enough braced that we would not recommend even changing to silk and steel stringing. It is currently set up with genuine gut strings; as such it a lovely player with a soft, sweet, but robust sound. The original green plush lined deluxe hard case is also in amazing condition. Playing this guitar is like a trip back to another time, a relaxed afternoon in an Edwardian parlor before the 20th century really kicked in. Excellent + Condition.
This guitar is one of the loveliest and most elegant American guitars we have seen, a Vega Model 94 Concert size flat-top from the early 1910s. This beautiful instrument is a veritable feast of fine materials and artistic design with highly figured Brazilian rosewood on the back and sides, a very tight-grained spruce top, and fantastic engraved pearl inlay in the bound ebony fingerboard. This instrument appears in at least one Vega catalog from around 1910-12, and is the next to the top of the line and the only model with the full engraved shaped pearl inlay long prized by collectors of Boston banjos. The label is missing (there is a small bit of glue residue inside where it once was), but this is absolutely a Vega instrument.
Although the name is only passingly familiar to most guitarists, Vega in their heyday designed and built the finest banjos of the early 20th century and a host of interesting mandolin family instruments as well as a full line of guitars. At the time Vega was one of America's most prestigious fretted marques, the only large-scale 20th century survivor of Boston's once-thriving 19th century instrument industry. Early Vega guitars are extremely well-made but of generally conventional design, and usually plainly ornamented. Only occasionally does one like this surface adorned with the beautiful engraved pearl inlay typical of the company's high-end banjos.
This inlay is in the style created by an Italian immigrant named Icilio Consalvi, whose skill in hand engraving pearl raised the level of that art to a height that has, in many minds, never been bettered. Consalvi worked for several Boston firms from the 1890s, but his best remembered designs appeared on the Fairbanks and subsequent Fairbanks/Vega banjos. The fingerboard of this guitar has a number of typical Consalvi style designs; the best feature may be the bound inlaid headstock with the engraved figural pearl character familiar from high-end Vega banjos.
The body is quite fancy as well. The top and soundhole ring are bound and bordered with elaborate half-herringbone and chain marquetry. The back is bound and trimmed in half-herringbone with an elaborate backstrip. The ebony bridge is adorned with pearl inserts on the ends engraved in a floral pattern that -- to modern eyes anyway -- looks rather like cannabis leaves. All workmanship is exceptionally neat both inside and out.
This guitar has a VERY lightly ladder-braced top, with tiny finely shaped delicate braces by the soundhole and bridge and a tiny thin bridgeplate. This is definitely a gut string guitar, not designed for or suited to steel string in any form. This is typical of high end guitars of the period, including Martins, and many were ruined long ago when strung with steel strings and left to pull themselves apart. This guitar is a very rare thing; an amazing survivor of a long-bygone age, and a playable ticket back to pre-WWI America in a sunny parlor in Boston...or Willoughby.
Overall length is 38 in. (96.5 cm.), 13 5/8 in. (34.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 1/16 in. (10.3 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 13/16 in. (46 mm.).
This guitar remains in stunningly fine original condition, especially for an instrument well over 100 years old. The finish has light checking overall but there is hardly any evidence of play and only the lightest handling wear. There is one deep check in the top finish bedind the bridge that looks like a spruce grain split but does not go down through the wood. The back shows a few scratches and scuffs and there is one dink into the back of the neck. There is a small chip repair to the side above the neck heel, probably from a neck reset and some tiny chips to the bridge. The nut is newer; the original ivory nut is still in the case but warped beyond redemption. One bridgepin is not original but a very close match; all others and the endpin are original.
This is one of the best preserved early 20th century guitars we have ever seen, a true time capsule. We note again this is a GUT STRING GUITAR. It is lightly enough braced that we would not recommend even changing to silk and steel stringing. It is currently set up with genuine gut strings; as such it a lovely player with a soft, sweet, but robust sound. The original green plush lined deluxe hard case is also in amazing condition. Playing this guitar is like a trip back to another time, a relaxed afternoon in an Edwardian parlor before the 20th century really kicked in. Excellent + Condition.