Engraver ID

I am trying to help a friend ID the engraver of these Dobro parts. Does anyone reconize the engraver or maybe an engravers style?
You can e mail me off list at profly001@aol.com
I am trying to find out what year it was engraved.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1930s-Engraved-...yZ118994QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Now that I've looked at the pic, I am thinking that the parts are etched and not engraved. What do you think?
Bobby

Looks like typical instrument engraving done in a wriggle style. No idea who did it, but it's more profuse than most of what I've seen on brass instruments and Dobros.

If you super size the images you can see that these parts are hand engraved and not etched. The scrollwork is wriggle cut and very well executed at that with smooth flowing lines. The background is cut in a unique fashion using multiple straight lines in a random fashion. This could help identify the engraver if one is learned in the works of instrument engravers. Gun engravers are my specialty but Jason Dumars is the guru of instrument engravers at the Cafe.

Jason are you out there?

Roger

Here's a link to the patent. It may be a good place to start. http://www.google.com/patents?id=oHBGAAAAEBAJ&dq=1896484
It dates back to 1933 Los Angeles CA
Give this a google "Rudolph Dopyera" I think you'll find a lot of info.

The Dopyera brothers invented the dobro or resonator guitar and the name comes from them "Do" as in Dopyera and "bro" as in brothers. Gibson Guitar Co now owns the name and trademark but that's a sore spot with me so I won't get into all that.

Suffice it to say that everybody calls a resonator guitar a Dobro regardless of who made it as a general term to describe that type of guitar. Kind of like an adjustable wrench is commonly referred to as a Crescent wrench even though the Crescent company isn't the only manufacturer of that type of wrench.

That patent date will be for the dobro guitar design itself and will not yield any info on that cover plate. Finding out who engraved it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. That auction seller is Mark Taylor a luthier in Mt. Juliet, TN and the son of Tut Taylor the famous Dobro player.

The first good resonator guitar I had was one that Mark and his crew made. I traded a 1966 Martin D-18 for it. I ordered it with no stain so I could stain the sunburst just the shade I wanted. I put the last coat of clear nitrocellulose lacquer on it the night my son was born, (96') so I wrote that inside on the back of the guitar. Ivan Rosenberg now has that guitar.

Dobro parts

I wasn't able to see parts on the ebay listing but you may be able to get an answer about early dobro engraving from Don Young at National Guitars or from George Gruhn at Gruhn guitars. I had a similar inquiry about engraving done in the late 60's on a Dobro and the answer I got was that the Dopyera's brought their engraving jobs to the Old's brass instrument shop down the street from their shop in L.A. and the engraving was done by a Mr. Garcia.