Unless a maker’s name is prominently displayed nearly all parlour guitars produced at the turn of the century that are still around now were made in either Mirecourt France or Markneukirchen in Germany.
Markneukirchen, in Germany’s Vogtland region near the Czech border, developed much like the French town of Mirecourt as a community almost entirely devoted to musical-instrument making. A centre of craftsmanship since the 17th century, it produced notable figures such as C. F. Martin, who left for America after being unable to join the local guitar-makers’ guild because he came from a cabinetmaking family. The town became a major hub for the German musical-instrument industry, with generations of small, family-run workshops specializing in different aspects of instrument building.
Between 1893 and 1916, the United States even stationed a consul in Markneukirchen to support the high volume of exports to North America. At its peak in the early 20th century, the town employed roughly 20,000 people in the trade, and historian David Schoenbaum estimates that over half of the world’s stringed instruments were produced there in 1914. Markneukirchen’s economic model allowed artisans to focus solely on production while a smaller group of middlemen handled sales and distribution, creating a remarkably efficient and influential manufacturing network.
I’d always referred to any of the turn of the century small bodied guitars as a “Parlour” guitar but Dr James Westbrook at the Guitar Museum, Brighton has corrected me; The expression “Parlor guitars” really relates to the small bodied American guitar of around 1880-1920, Martin, Gibson etc. People wrongly use it to describe Lacote and Panormos etc, but these should be referred to as ‘early romantic’ guitars.
For more information on the subject of early guitars this new book by Dr Westbrook published by ASG Music Ltd., Halesowen, 2023 is probably the most comprehensive.
It was awarded the 2025 Bessaraboff prize by the American Musical Instrument Society.
