Ms. Linda was going through an old chest (her great grandmothers) beyond a gob of other stuff, she come up on a Sears / Roebuck an company catalogue.

Got to thumbing through that thing ... it boasts

High Grade Violin Outfits $2.95 and there is one for $1.95 others as high as $22.00 for concert quality.

Could'a been a high price for some back then.

What a time machine! Sorry no accordions listed (fiddlers musta been first on the block).

Nonc D

If you figure things double in price every 10 years, that comes to somewhere between $3000-6000.

And try using some of these new-fangled glossy magazines in the outhouse.

scrachy

My Grandad probably played on one of those $ 2.95 jobs, but his was no doubt second-hand. According to my Mom who passed away last year at 95, only the ladies of the house got to utilize Mr. Sears & Rareback. Menfolk had to do with corncobs. Ouch!
JB

...interesting that this topic comes up...our local newspaper ran a story recently pointing out homes in the area purchased from Sears...according to the story, all of the materials, down to the last nail, were packaged together and shipped by rail car to a local terminal where the owner, using whatever means he/they had, emptied a boxcar and hauled the material to the site...the story suggested that the instructions for building the homes were very detailed so almost anyone could build a Sears home...

The photos in the article have pretty nice houses in them...

If you can find an original Sears catalogue Craftsman home, hauled out of the boxcar and into a wagon and assembled by the intended owner and his helpers on his property back at the turn of the century, buy it for the right price and bring it back to its original glory. You will have a home your family can live in another 100 years.
JB