This guitar was made by C.F. Martin & Company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1913. Christian Friedrich was born in Markneukirchen, Germany. Martin and his father, Johann Georg Martin were both guitar makers and members of the cabinet makers’ guild in Markneukirchen. Following a legal dispute with the violin makers’ guild over the right to make guitars and the restrictiveness of the guild system, C.F. Martin left Germany for New York in 1833. By 1838, C.F. Martin had moved his business to Nazareth, Pennsylvania. This six course (6x1) guitar is a Concert model O-28, serial #11759, and has a spruce top, rosewood body, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge, and inlay of ivory and celluloid marquetry. There are slotted diamond inlays on the fingerboard: two at the 5th fret, one at the 7th fret, and two at the 9th fret. In an 1898 C.F. Martin catalog, a Concert model O-28 guitar sold for $45.00.
