Circa 1926 Gibson Poinsettia Ukulele

I’ve always been a little baffled about the decorative motifs builders used on some of their instruments in the 1920s and 1930s. I understand the Egyptian themed instruments because King Tut’s tomb was discovered in 1922 and sparked an international craze for items decorated with palm trees, pyramids and sphinxes. Airplane designs began turning up after Lindbergh’s 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic and Hawaiian themed instruments were made because Hawaiian music became so popular in the 1920s. (Really, steel guitars and ukuleles were huge back then.) But what was the thinking behind the Leedy Hollander, a banjo engraved with windmills and dikes? Was there a Dutch craze that we’ve forgotten? And what about the Gibson Florentine banjo, which was decorated with scenes of Venice rather than Florence, as the name would suggest? As I said, it baffles me.

To my eye, one of the oddest decorated instruments is today’s Catch, the Gibson Poinsettia Ukulele. The Poinsettia is an an extremely rare instrument that was available from Gibson as a special order from 1926 to around 1935 or so.  (It may have ben listed in the 1928 Gibson catalog, but I haven’t been able to confirm that.) Then, as now, the poinsettia was associated with Christmas and I just don’t see this as a holiday instrument. Although the reason Gibson decided to make this uke is lost to time, it can’t be denied that they did a great job making it. The poinsettias are beautifully hand painted and the multi-colored plastic inlays are nicely set into a Bakelite fretboard. These ukes are so scarce that I suspect musicians in the 1920s were as confused as I was about the design and didn’t buy them. Still, as odd as they look, they do sound great and they are highly regarded by ukulele collectors. If you’d like to make one of your uke playing friends really, really happy, you can surprise them with his uke which is listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $11,579.

Click here for the original listing.