Collectible Guitar Spring 2026 | Page 138

JIM IRSAY COLLECTION SUPPLEMENT

The D-45 market is stable. A result at $ 393,700 sits directly inside the $ 350,000 – $ 520,000 band established for clean original examples, and it does so without the kind of bidding frenzy that occasionally distorts a single auction into a false signal. Dealer listings have been consistent, private sales have tracked the same range, and the Christie’ s result falls in line.

Provenance moves prices when it is well documented. The 1936 Sawtelle D-18 cleared its model category by a substantial margin on the strength of a verifiable ownership chain. A guitar’ s history, as this issue’ s feature makes clear, is part of what you are buying, and an unverifiable story is worth considerably less than a documented one.

Coda One lot in the Irsay sale arrived with its provenance literally written on the case. The battered guitar case for Johnny Cash’ s 1956 Martin D-21 bears the initials J. R.— Cash’ s birth name, J. R. Cash, the one he used before the Air Force required a proper first name on his enlistment papers and he became John R. Cash.

Cash played it heavily in the late 1950s. These were the years he left Sun Records for Columbia, recorded The Fabulous Johnny Cash and Hymns by Johnny Cash, and kept touring with the Tennessee Two. In 1960, he gave it to his younger brother Tommy, then 20 years old, reportedly when Johnny was passing through Germany on a tour of US military bases. Tommy subsequently traded it to his friend Billy McCravy, who was stationed there at the time. After McCravy’ s death, his widow consigned it to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, where collector Steven Capener acquired it in 2004. When Capener spoke with Tommy Cash the following year, Tommy confirmed that Johnny had used it“ quite a lot” through 1958, 1959, and 1960. It is the only known 1950s-era Johnny Cash guitar to have come to auction.

It sold for $ 215,900. Chris Martin of C. F. Martin & Co. acquired it for his personal collection, with plans to display it from time to time at the Martin Museum and bring it along when he and Craig Thatcher present around the country. A Cash guitar, back in Martin’ s hands, going back out on the road. Some things resolve themselves neatly.

138 | SPRING 2026