Is this a genuine "Jonah Kumalae"

Hi,

i bought a old Ukulele at an auction house in England.

It is labeled as "Jonah Kumalae gold award 1915".

A luthier told me that my uke might be built about 100 years ago, but he had not the experience to tell me how a real "kumalae would look like".

Since in germany we have nearly no experts in terms of old hawaiian/chicago ukes, i hope somebody here can tell me if my ukulele is a real "jonah kumalae".

I upload some pictures, if you need pictures of specific details, please tell me.

Here are some sites that might help you:

http://database.ukulelecorner.co.uk/site/ukulelemakers/i-j-k/kumalae
https://jakewildwood.blogspot.com/p/museum.html

Looks like one on the pictures. They are fairly common in stores that carry old ukes, with prices around $300 if they are somewhat playable.

Sure looks like one to me. If it didn't have that headstock label it would be harder to determine. But with the label I don't see any reason to doubt it's a real Kumalae.

I have an uke that looks just like this one. It has a headstock label with the Hawaii crest, but w/out the name Kumalae. I don't know if it's one of his, but I call it my Kumalae, anyway, because I can. (I would never try to pass it off as a real one, though.)

I love that little thing! It's so light and it sounds like a dream. Hellish to tune, but holds tuning once I get it there. Do humidify if your climate calls for it. Mine developed a small crack when I wasn't paying attention.

Enjoy!

there are a bunch on reverb that you can compare to

Okay, thank you guys

There is a sort of modern version of that.

https://www.southernukulelestore.co...-koa-vintage-style-soprano-ukulele-with-case/