Knutsen "Pineapple" Hawaiian Guitar    

The third and fanciest example of the rare form dubbed the "pineapple-shaped" Hawaiian! Very similar to the other two, with the same label, but very different (unknown) woods. This one has a pickguard and rope-bound headstock, rare for a Knutsen.
Best of all, the owners still have the original receipt! The instrument was sold by John W. Rogers, a Knutsen distributor in Bakersfield, CA (90 miles north of Los Angeles). Rogers writes that he received $50 for "Final Payment on Knutsen Guitar, Hawaiian Tipe (sp). No. 4. Color Red." Unknown is if there was an earlier deposit or if this was the total price. I suspect that Rogers himself came up with the "model" details - borrowing the "No. 4" from a similarly-appointed Weissenborn, his "Color Red" a poor way to try to further identify the typical one-of-a-kind Knutsen instrument. Rogers was apparently serious enough about his Knutsen distributorship to have a stamp made up for the back of his generic receipts. 
With a known sale date of October 21, 1921, we can hypothesize that the "pineapples" were also built circa 1921, and that the white New Hawaiian Family label was clearly in use at this time (whether at the beginning, end, or smack in the middle of its period of use is still unknown). 
The instrument was purchased new by Gus Painter, the great-grandfather of the current owner. 

(images copyright Les Scigliano)

To Hawaiian Guitars

Home

To Next Instrument

[Biographical] [Instruments] [Historical Photos]
[Credits] [FAQ] [Bibliography] [Updates] [Links] [Contact]
[Home (Knutsen Archives)] [Home (Harpguitars.net)] 

All Site Contents Copyright © Gregg Miner, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,2006,2007. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright and Fair Use of material and use of images: See Copyright and Fair Use policy.