The Larsons' Creations: Guitars and Mandolins by Robert Hartman

This book is an account of two brothers who were premier producers of stringed instruments in the early part of this century. The Larsons were pioneers in building steel string flat-top guitars using their inventive ideas that produced some of the strongest guitar bodies ever made.  They built steel string guitars throughout their careers which spanned almost the entire first half of the 20^th century, 1900-1944.  Their little two-man custom shop produced a vast array of hand-made instrument designs, styles and sizes from 12" parlor guitars to 21" super-jumbos.  During the early part of their careers they built at least four styles of harp guitars. The most famous of these was made for W. J. Dyer and Bro. along with the complementary harp mandolins, harp mandolas and harp mandocellos.Swedish immigrant cabinet makers Carl and August Larson made instruments under the brand names of Maurer, Prairie State, Euphonon, W.J. Dyer and Bro., Wm. C. and under their own name. They also supplied Wm. C. Stahl with guitars, harp guitars and a full line of mandolin orchestra instruments as well as maintaining their own variety of house brands.

The Larsons creations have become a large part of the history of guitar-making in America and are considered by many to be pieces of American art and their highly-collectible creations are considered to day to be some of the finest ever made. Lovingly researched and written by Robert Hartman, grandson of Carl Larson,

The Larsons Creations contains sixteen pages of full-color photos of these artful instruments, classic advertisements, and catalogs.

The accompanying CD features Muriel Anderson, 1989 National Fingerpicking Champion, describing and playing a selected group of 11 Larson instruments including various sized guitars, a Dyer harp guitar, a Dyer harp mandolin, other mandolins and a rare Stahl octave mandolin.