Chicago, Illinois
Ivan J. Hlad

Wood, leather, mother-of-pearl, metal 
1939 C.E.
Length: 35 in; Width: 11.5; Depth: 3.75
Strings – Lutes – Miscellaneous Lutes

Label inside (much ripped out):  Phone: CANal  4708  / —– 30
Inside where neck meets resonator:  Ivan J Hlad / Tamburitza Mfg.Co / String Instruments / 1939 / J Hlad / Chicago / 2125

East Europe has quite a few long neck lutes; a lot of them called tambura (or tamboura). Originally, they are based on instruments from southern parts of Europe, like the Turkish saz, or the Albanian cifteli or the sargija. The body used to be pear-shaped, but more recently the guitar-shape is getting more popular. Over time it has evolved to become the Croatian and north Serbian national instrument.

In places like Bulgaria and Macedonia, the tamburas are the only plucked instrument played in a group. However, in Serbia and Croatia they have groups (tamburitza) playing solely plucked instruments – of different sizes, expanding into a whole family known as the tamburitza orchestras.

The basic tamburicas are from the smallest to the largest: bisernica, brac, bugarija, celo and berde. The tamburitza group may have just one of each, or several close to the same size and they may also be tuned differently.  The tamburica is plucked or strummed, by hand or with a plectrum. 

This tamburica is made by Ivan J Hlad (1888-1975) of the Tamburitza Mfg. Co. in Chicago, Illinois.  It is called a ‘Brac’ or ‘Basprim,’ and is a tenor shaped guitar.  The ‘Brac’ plays the melody and harmony in the mid-range octaves.  This ‘Brac’ has 6 pegs on the left side of the f-shaped peghead.  There is MOP inlay between some of the metal frets on the neck, and MOP outlines the front and back of sound resonator. 

Ivan Hlad was born in Croatia in 1888 and apprenticed in Zagreb in the factory of Terezija Kovačić and then in Graz, Austria with a builder named Kocman.  Ivan and his wife immigrated to the US in 1912, leaving their two young boys behind in Europe with family.  In 1917 Ivan was working at the Kimball Piano Company and in 1920 listed his occupation as ‘maker of musical goods’ at a ‘music factory.’

According to an interview with one of Ivan’s sons, The Tamburitza Manufacturing Company of Fort Recovery, Ohio is said to have been founded in 1917, when Ivan J. Hlad opened his own facility under the name of “First Croatian tambura factory and musical partitions printing press” in Chicago, Illinois.  Then, less than ten years later, the company began taking shape in Fort Recovery, Ohio under the leadership of Ivan Hlad and Andrija Franic.

The workshop created in 1917 in Chicago, Illinois by I.J. Hlad, became known as the largest producer of tamburitzas in the world.  Their factory was equipped with modern machines and devices, and they employed able and skillful workers.  Later, Mr. Hlad and Mr. Franić invented an appliance, which is put into the tambura to increase the loudness of the tambura. The appliance was named ‘Master Tone Amplifier.’

Resource: https://www.snathanieladams.com/2022/02/ivan-john-hlad-and-tamburitza-mfg-co.html