C.F. MARTIN AND COMPANY

At the turn of the 19th Century, Martin's most elaborate pearl decorated guitars were the Style 42s. With a OO-42 selling for $80 it was unarguably the most expensive guitar in their catalogue at the time. Though officially the Style 45 does not appear in the records of C.F. Martin until 1904, a number of guitars with similar appointments were completed in 1901 and 1903.
According to the records of the C.F. Martin Company two guitars listed as a OO-42 was produced bearing the serial number 9372 in 1901. With the extra pearl inlay on the sides and back, pearl vine extending the length of the fingerboard, headstock and across the pickguard it was exceedingly more decorative than any previous Style 42. C.F. Martin historian, Mike Longworth, in his seminal research on the Martin Company singles out one of these guitars for its unique inlay and identifies it rightly as the origin of the Style 45.

This guitar (Lot 15) is the next sequential serial number, 9373, from 1901 and built concurrently with the first 00-42 "Special". The guitar was shipped on December 25, 2901 to Bartlett Music Company in Los Angeles. It was sold at the time for $100. Today we can safely say that these three guitars and the ones that followed were the prototypes that inspired C.F. Martin's legendary Style 45 models.