A New Web Site Illustrating the Development of the Early Martin Guitar
Created by Folk and Roots Music Photographer Robert Corwin
Featuring Instruments from the Phyllis, Jerry, and Robert Corwin Collection
Please note: This web site has not been publicly announced yet, and is a work in progress, with lots of holes and place holders.
Not all sections are complete - some have not been started yet. Not all links work. If you've stumbled on this site, feel free to enjoy what's here, and check back for further additions, refinements, and corrections as you wish, knowing it will take some time before the site is finished. It's not perfect, but I thought you might want to take advantage of what we have so far.
I look forward to adding thanks to the many friends and experts who have helped make this possible, and links to other helpful resources.
For the time being, let's please keep this web site our little secret, between you and me!
"perfecting the art of 'guitar porn' ...
This site is an amazing labor-of-love, quite possibly the most in-depth, photo-intensive look ever at old, pre-war (and in many cases antique) Martin guitars … All online and for free."
--Jason Verlinde
The Fretboard Journal
Start here if you're looking for help
Identifying C. F. Martin Guitars
A Martin Timeline
~ FIRST FEATURES ~
Border Patrol
The Head of the Class
Tuner Sandwich
A Stamp of Approval
Pearl Jam
Arrowheads and Other Hidden Treasures
The End Is Near
The Spanish Foot
Speaking Volutes
Feel Like a Heel
A Bridge to Somewhere
All Tied Up
Back in the Saddle
Hear a Pin Drop
Nuts!!!
Something to Fret About
Strung Out
Photo Finish
Knock on Wood
Does Size Matter?
X Marks the Spot
Your Biggest Fan
Safe at Home Plate
A Final Nail in the Coffin
~ THE EVOLUTION OF THE MARTIN GUITAR ~
~ EARLY C. F. MARTIN INSTRUMENTS ~
Before the Styles Were Defined
Martin Stauffer Style Guitar
This sibling of the earliest and most notable guitar in the Martin museum is unlabeled, which not only raises questions about this guitar,
but reminds us of questions remaining concerning Martin's guitar as well.
These two instruments feature small, shallow figure-eight shaped bodies with large upper bouts, Stauffer style headstocks with Vienna gears,
necks with inlaid stripes of ebony, raised angled fretboard extensions, and fabulous ivory and ebony ice cream cone heels with clock key adjustments.
Both guitars have spruce tops and maple backs and sides, and abalone soundhole designs set in mastic. Each guitar is ladder braced with
a "buttress" under the fretboard extension.
Illustrated in Washburn & Johnston, "Martin Guitars: An Illustrated Celebration of America's Premier Guitarmaker":
"The similarities between these two guitars are startling... Note the almost identical bridge, soundhole rosette, and angled cut at the end of the fretboard,
as well as the adjustable neck with fretboard floating above the soundboard. Both guitars also have maple backs and sides, though Martin would soon
shift almost exclusively to rosewood."
Early C.F. Martin Built Hudson Street Viennese Style Guitar
While the earliest Viennese influenced Martins had rather small figure-eight shaped bodies with large upper bouts, the Hudson Street label Martins,
built later in the 1880's, could be surprisingly large and deep guitars reminiscent of the later Gibson Nick Lucas. All of the earliest Viennese
influenced Martins have ladder bracing.
While most people associate the Viennese influenced Martins with Stauffer style headstocks with Vienna gears, many of them originally had slotted
headstocks with machines, some of which have been improperly replaced due to misconception.
Most of the Hudson Street Martins have a top border of "thumbprint" inlays as well as the herringbone trim that has distinguished Martins for many years.
Illustrated in Washburn & Johnston, "Martin Guitars: An Illustrated Celebration of America's Premier Guitarmaker":
"Martin ledgers from the 1830's suggest that most of C.F. Sr.'s guitars were small and plain. The eye catching inlays on this fancy model probably
ensured it's survival, while most of the simple guitars from this period were discarded long ago."
Martin & Coupa Brazilian "Tigerwood" Guitar
Many Martins from the 1840's were affixed with a "Martin & Coupa" label and distributed by New York guitar teacher John Coupa.
This is a typical early Martin parlor guitar, still with the Stauffer Style headstock and Vienna gears, ebonized neck and "ice cream cone" heel, fan
bracing, an early precursor of the Spanish foot which extends the width of the upper bout, and an early version of Martin's typical body shape,
with a smaller upper bout than the Viennese influenced guitars, and a flatter base of the lower bout than found on later Martins.
This instrument has been noted in several books as an early illustration of Martin's use of Hawaiian Koa, long before it was first thought to have been used during the Hawaiian craze of the teens.
Recent testing has shown this wood to in fact be Goncalo Alves from Eastern Brazil, commonly referred to as "Tigerwood".
Illustrated in Washburn & Johnston, "Martin Guitars: An Illustrated Celebration of America's Premier Guitarmaker":
"You don't often find Hawaiian koa on mid-nineteenth-century guitars; in fact, you don't find much koa on anything at that early date. Around 1915,
when the Hawaiian music craze swept the nation, Martin began to make lots of instruments from this beautiful wood, but one can only speculate
why C.F. Sr. chose to try it on this Martin & Coupa from the 1840's."
Illustrated in Carter "Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments":
"Stuck over the Martin & Coupa label is one indicating that the guitar was "Sold by John F. Nunns". Martin & Coupa claimed the largest assortment of
guitars that can be found in the United States."
Martin & Coupa Spanish Style Guitar
This example shows the Martin guitar at a critical point in it's evolution. The "Spanish" Martin is a distinct style with specific features clearly
showing Martin's awareness of the pre-Torres guitar in Spain. This guitar retains the features of Martin's earliest Viennese influenced guitars,
such as the Stauffer Style headstock, while adding features of the Spanish guitar.
This fine example of perhaps the earliest of Martin's versions of a Spanish guitar has many of the typical Spanish features: cedar neck with
elegantly curved Spanish heel, Spanish style interior false foot, tie style bridge with ivory inset, fan braces, two piece rosewood sides with simple
lengthwise center strip dividing the two pieces, and both bindings and simple back strip with straight lines extending into the heel made of holly.
This guitar is also an early example of features which would be hallmarks of Martin design for years to come, such as the ebony pyramid style
bridge, and the body shape with a smaller upper bout than the Viennese influenced guitars.
"This instrument has a combination of features that is, to our knowledge, unique on a Martin guitar. The head design is similar to that used by
Martin in the 1830's, with the tuning machines concealed under a metal plate and buttons on one side, after the manner of Stauffer. The body,
however, does not have the Stauffer-inspired, wasp-waisted shape of the 1830's, but is closer to the mature Martin style of twenty years later.
The shape suggests strongly that Martin had had the opportunity to examine a Spanish-made guitar of about 1840, and was
experimenting with Spanish-style construction."
"This supposition is reinforced by the presence of Spanish features such as we have seen on no other Martin guitar, including simple fan
bracing with three radiating struts, and a Spanish head and slipper foot into which the sides are slotted. The division of the rosewood sides by a
narrow decorative hardwood strip is another feature borrowed from the nineteenth-century Spanish guitars. The presence of this strip weakens
the sides; to give them strength, Martin fitted several vertical braces into which the cross struts of the top and back are notched, framing up the body."
"The design of the bridge is very modern for it's date. In shape it conforms to the "pyramid" bridge pattern used by Martin throughout the latter
half of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth. But this is one of the very few nineteenth-century Martin guitars to be made with a
tied rather than a pin bridge. The strings pass over a broad, backward sloping ivory saddle-piece before being secured at the rear of the bridge."
"This guitar proves that C.F. Martin was one of the few makers outside Spain in the early nineteenth century to be aware of the possibility of fan strutting
on the guitar, and that he experimented with it before developing his own famous X-bracing system. It shows the American gut-stringed guitar, the
ancestor of the steel-sting guitar, at a critical point of it's evolution, about to break away from the diverse European influences to which it owed it's beginnings."
Illustrated in Washburn & Johnston, "Martin Guitars: An Illustrated Celebration of America's Premier Guitarmaker":
"The most interesting parts of this Martin & Coupa are what you can't see. The neck has a Spanish-shaped heel, with the sides slotted into a
neck block with an interior "foot". The top is also fan braced, a feature this guitar shares with several other Martin & Coupa instruments. Other small
details from this experimental period at Cherry Hill strongly suggest that C.F. Sr. was turning away from Northern European guitar design and
incorporating ideas found on Spanish instruments predating guitarmaker Antonio Torres's guitars.
Martin Spanish Style Guitar
This guitar is a uniquely fine example of Martin's version of the Spanish guitar, with many of the typical features: cedar neck with elegantly curved Spanish
heel, large, square headstock flared to a wide end, with pegs, nickel silver nut, Spanish style interior false foot, tie bridge, fan braces, two piece
rosewood sides with decorative side filets and a decorative lengthwise center strip with marquetry dividing the two sections, and back with rosewood veneer.
With the fancy appearance of perhaps the most jewel-like Martin "presentation" guitar existent, with a top border of pearl diamonds set in mastic, and a
version of one of the three basic pearl diamond-adorned soundhole designs with two rows of glittering tiny pearl diamonds surrounding a solid band of colorful
abalone, this example was clearly built to be played, with a large, long scale, modern feeling neck, which gives this guitar the feel in hand of a much larger guitar.
Illustrated in Gura, "C. F. Martin and His Guitars, 1796-1873":
"This instrument has rosewood sides and back (laminated); marquetry on back and side edges and through the center of it's sides; pearl trim around the
center of it's sides; pearl trim around the top, and an abalone rosette. Note in particular the beautiful abalone soundhole and top trim, found on Martin's
highest-style guitars, and the ivory tie bridge."
Matt Umanov, Umanov Guitars, New York:
"Most interestingly, it also has a longer scale; at 24.5" it is nearly that of a grand concert size Martin. This suggests possible construction for concert use,
as it gives the guitar an amazingly sonorous tone, far out of proportion to it's size."
delineating all edges of the headstock, volute and neck
divided by a longitudinal strip of marquetry, details of internal construction, and a long modern feeling neck. This unique "Renaissance" shape,
however, can be seen on only a handful of early Martin guitars.
But the unique details go further than that. This is the only known example of a Martin with sides tapered to fit the contour of the neck heel in a
most elegant fashion. The neck is a full 2" wide, with a 24.75" scale, and this is one of only two Martins known to have a unique peak on the
top of the ivory bound headstock. Besides being one of the most unusual Martin examples known to exist, the condition is breathtaking, all original
and looking like an almost new guitar.
around frequently when describing vintage guitars, but in this case we’re not exaggerating. Only seven of these unusual “Renaissance” shape Martins
have surfaced to date, and only this one has the sides tapered to fit the contour of the neck heel."
edge of the peghead."
"The compound curve of the guitar where the sides meet the neck is sure to inspire admiration from any serious woodworker...no other Martin
guitar has surfaced in which the sides form a continuous, smooth transition into the neck. The low-profile shoulders would make playing in
upper positions on this guitar almost as easy as on a cutaway guitar.
Martin & Coupa Alternate X Braced Guitar
This Martin was built with what I believe to be the first experimental variation of X-bracing, a variation appearing at about the same time on a handful
of both Martin and Schmidt & Maul guitars. One such Schmidt & Maul is dated 1845. It is unknown whether the two builder worked together in concert or not.
This example, which is quite close in size to a standard Size 2 Martin, also foreshadows a standard Martin Style 21, with simple, tasteful appointments
including a herringbone rosette and back strip and a top border consisting of simple light and dark lines.
probably made at the new location. Note also the squared off headstock with rear-facing tuning pegs rather than the old Stauffer-influenced design."
aware of each other and may have even been acquaintances. The fact that two very similar guitars - both sold in New York in the latter 1840's and
both made by German immigrants - have nearly identical X-patterns under the top suggests that there was a considerable pool of talent at work. Whether
X bracing was a concept shared among compatriots or pirated by competitors is the only question left unanswered. (This) guitar bears a Martin & Coupa
label, and Martin historian Mike Longworth's research into insurance policies held by C.F. Martin Sr. on Coupa's 385 Broadway address suggests that
Martin had guitars there as late as 1851 and certainly for several years before that. Regardless of which came first, Martin was the firm that went on to
make X bracing a standard feature of the American guitar."
Several Schmidt & Maul guitars from the mid-1840's have been seen with the identical "hybrid X brace" seen on the Martin & Coupa shown above.
This Schmidt & Maul, dated 1847, has another form of "hybrid X", consisting of fan braces, with three struts, and a tone bar that extends past the
treble end of the bridge and across the treble strut to form a small X under the treble side of the top.
The Schmidt & Maul contains many elements similar to the Martin, including herringbone trim, a Spanish foot, ebonized neck with ice cream cone
heel, ebony tie style pyramid bridge with ivory inset, and a similar company stamp on the upper back near the heel, not surprising since Louis
Schmidt worked for Martin ten years earlier.
I call these "hybrid X" guitars because both contain elements of fan bracing combined with an early variation of an X. I suspect this variation
came first, as it contains a complete three strutted fan with an added tone bar, while the other variation, seen on Martins, Martin & Coupas, and
Schmidt & Mauls, contains only the outer struts of the fan in combination with a large X.
Early Hybrid X Braced Spanish Martin
This Martin, with the same experimental variation of X-bracing appearing on the Martin & Coupa above, also has several distinctive 1840's
features, including a Spanish foot, Spanish heel, nickel silver nut, and large abalone fretboard markers on the side of the neck, as well as the
colored diamond backstrip, outer rosette rings with a tiny rope pattern, and checkerboard binding sometimes seen on early Martins.
This early Spanish Style Martin appears in a larger Size 1, with a variant of the classic three ring soundhole rosette with double ivory center
rings that later distinguished the Style 28.
Martin Mid-1840's Alternate X Brace Spanish Style Guitar
This Size 1 Martin has another experimental variant of X bracing, with a large X, and the tone bar below the bridge crossing the treble brace of the
X to form another, smaller X. Similar in concept to the Schmidt & Maul, with a tone bar crossing on the treble strut of the fan to form a smaller X,
this appears to be the first of the variants to contain a large, complete X.
The soundhole of this guitar has another variation of the diamond rosette, with a tasteful single center ring of alternating long and short abalone diamonds.
This example also has features typical of a mid-1840's Martin, including a Spanish foot, Spanish heel, nickel silver nut, large abalone fretboard markers
on the side of the neck, ebony pyramid bridge with a "scooped" or "lipped" back, and a large diamond end strip and outer rosette rings with a tiny rope pattern
of early Martins and arrowhead backstrip of later 19th century Martins.
Martin Mid-1840's X Braced Spanish Guitar
This Spanish Style guitar has been called perhaps the earliest known Martin to feature a mature X brace,
Still with the earliest typical Spanish features such as cedar neck with Spanish heel, two piece rosewood sides with a simple lengthwise center strip
dividing the two pieces, and simple back strip with straight lines extending into the heel.
on earlier examples, and the Spanish foot has been eliminated.
Bill Capell, from the essay "Early C.F. Martin Guitars":
Martin 1850's Ivory Fingerboard Stauffer Style Guitar
Martin sometimes held over features for many years, offering guitars with a mix of features from many periods on request. One such set of features is
the Stauffer Style headstock with Vienna gears on an ebonized neck with ice cream cone heel. This fancy, small size 3 presentation guitar with ivory clad
fingerboard and Vienna gears was most likely built in the 1850's.
well as fancy wood marquetry on the top border and on the sides adjacent to the top and back binding, and rare, gold plated frets. With beautiful Brazilian
rosewood veneer over spruce on the back, the earliest features such as the ebonized neck and ice cream cone heel are combined with mature X braces.
change when comparing this example to the earlier Stauffer-style is the narrower upper body, giving an overall shape that is more like a modern guitar."
Martin 1850's Pearl Rosette and Pendant Guitar
This final example combines decorative details typically found on earlier Martins with construction elements that would be standard for years to come. With
a beautiful decorative pearl rosette that is possibly one of the earliest examples to contain a version of the continuous thin band of pearl seen on the rosettes and
borders of pearl Martins until WWII replacing the rows of tiny pearl diamonds found on the finer Martins of the mid-1800's, and an abalone pendant similar to
the ones adorning the bridges of early Hudson St. Martins. The guitar is spruce lined. The Jerome tuners, with uncommon, large bone rollers, have intricately
carved pearl buttons of the type appearing on only the smallest handful of Martin guitars, while more typically seen on ornate 19th Century presentation banjos.
The body is a size 2 1/2, and the basic appointments follow the form of a Style 30, making this perhaps a $32 guitar. This guitar is possibly one of
the last before Martin models would become standardized.
~ MARTIN STYLES ~
By the early1850's, Martin had established basic standard models, noted by a two number system, the first number designating the size of the guitar,
and a second number, following a hyphen, originally representing the wholesale price, and later designating the quality level of the guitar.
Originally, larger numbers represented smaller guitars, but when the relatively large size 1 was no longer the largest available, a larger single 0, 00,
and eventually a 000 were added.
With the exception of a relatively small number of custom orders, most guitars produced through the end of the Nineteenth Century conformed to these
standards, which remained essentially the same for the remainder of the century.
The highest level of trim was reserved for the Style 42, with solid bands of abalone pearl in the center ring of the rosette as well as bordering the top of the
guitar and the the fretboard extension. The Style 42 was adorned with genuine ivory bindings on the body and fretboard, and an ivory pyramid bridge.
Following the Spanish classical tradition, the ebony fretboard had no decoration until the mid-1890's.
larger sizes. This example is from the 1890's, similar special orders of 1-42 and 0-42 models show up in Martin sales records in the early 1880's.
With gleaming ivory bridge and ivory friction pegs but a blank fretboard, these abalone bordered guitars make quite a fashion statement."
Martin 1902 00-42S / Style 45 Prototype
In 1902, three custom ordered Style 42 guitars were built with pearl inlay added to the border of the sides and back, as well as having an inlaid "fern"
design added to the peghead. The first of these had a fancy inlaid pickguard of the style common on the higher end Martin mandolins of the time, and an
intricate vine pattern inlaid on the fretboard.
This example was the first to have the more prototypical fingerboard inlays of the type seen in 1904 when this design appeared as a standard part of
the Martin line as a Style 45.
Style 45 guitar with this inlay in the 1904 catalog and the same photo appeared as late as the 1909 catalog, but Martin had actually begun using
a simpler pattern, known today as the “torch,” by 1905, and that version lasted until about 1927."
"The initial designation – Style 42 special – understated just how special Style 45 Martins would become. In the pre-World War II years, it was
only surpassed briefly by the OM-45 Deluxe (produced only in 1930), which featured additional inlays in the pickguard and bridge. In today’s
vintage market, Style 45s follow the same pattern as they did in their original listings."
"Although Martin has offered models in recent years with higher model numbers than Style 45, along with many limited-edition, commemorative or artist
models with fancier appointments, Style 45 remains today as it was when this “pre-45” guitar helped to get the Style 45 ball rolling – simply Martin’s top style."
The Style 27 has roots as a size 2 guitar selling for $27. A 1-27 was added later. The Styles 30 and 34 both began as size 2 guitars, both expanding later to include several other sizes.
The Style names are derived from the price of the instrument, so it may seem odd that a Style 27 appears fancier than a Style 28, and it is! At the time the style names were set, the plainer Martin 0-28 was more expensive than the pearl adorned Martin 2-27 because of it's larger size.
The Style 27, 30, and 34 Martins can be identified by the combination of pearl in the rosette with fancy wood marquetry around the top border of the guitar.
The styles 27 and 30 differ little. In fact, a Style 27 from some years is almost exactly the same as the style 30 of other years. The only consistent distinguishing feature is the use of
brass tuner plates on the Style 27 and silver tuners on the Style 30. The Style 27 was typically made in size 2, while the Style 30 was typically made in size 0.
Styles 27 and 30 have an ebony wood pyramid bridge, while a style 34 differs mainly in having a solid ivory pyramid bridge.
The top and back, as well as the fingerboard, were bound with genuine Elephant ivory. As noted in Longworth, all three Styles were described as "ivory to the nut", having ivory binding which extended the length of the neck.
Illustrated on p. 55 of Evans, "Guitars: Music, History, Construction and the Players, from Renaissance to Rock"
The "27" in the guitar's designation refers to it's decoration, Martin having introduced a system of numerical suffixes to indicate styles in the late 1850's. Like all nineteenth century Martins, this guitar has a spruce top with light X bracing, Brazilian Rosewood sides and back, cedar neck, and ebony pin bridge with a small pyramid-shaped hump at each end. The special identifying features of a Style 27 included, at this date, ivory body bindings lined with a multicolored wood inlay on the top edge, abalone soundhole inlay, and ivory fingerboard bindings. The bridge pins are also made of ivory, and are inlaid with mother of pearl dots. As on most nineteenth century Martin guitars, tuning is by German built machines mounted "upside down" - that is, so that the string spindle is above rather than below the shaft which carries the button."
Early Martin Style 28 and 1870's Style 26 and 28
The Style 28 has been a mainstay of the Martin line for most of Martin's existence. The Style 28 is distinguished by a herringbone pattern
on the top border and a three ring rosette in a 5-9-5 configuration with twin center bands of ivory. It is thought, however, that the Style 28 may
have originated from a version with a thin central band of abalone in the rosette.
The Style 24 is one of the most interesting models in Martin's history.
While most features of Martin guitars became relatively standardized with the advent of established models in the 1850's, when marquetry was
specified, the choice of individual marquetry design could vary from one guitar to the next. As the model with more marquetry than any
other: on the rosette, top border, endstrip, and backstrip, the Style 24 had the opportunity for more variety than any other Martin model,
and the Style 24 usually delivered on it's potential.
The Style 24 is distinguished by marquetry on the top border
The style 23 has the same side filets, but with a border of simple lines in place of the marquetry top border.
While this example has very early features like the scooped back pyramid bridge, the style 24 was the one model to continue having marquetry
end strips into the 1880's, several decades after they were discontinued on other models.
X braced examples of the Style 24 can be found with both cedar necks with Spanish heels and ebonized necks with ice cream cone heels.
Illustrated in Gura, "C. F. Martin and His Guitars, 1796-1873":
instruments... The tuners are stamped "Jerome" and presumably were imported from Europe. Note the elegantly sculpted buttons."
Early Martin Styles 20 & 21
More on Styles 20, 21 & 22
There is very little to distinguish between the Style 20 and Style 21 besides size.
The Style 20 apears to be distinguished by a multi-colored herrginbone pattern on the rosette.
More on Styles 15, 17 & 18
The early Style 17 had rosewood binding on the top only. The 2-17 was re-designed in 1929 as the style "25", which dropped all bindings to make it more affordable during the depression.
1895 Style 5, 1916 Bitting Special, and 1940 2-20 Martin Mandolins
Martin made three basic style of mandolins, the early round backs, the flat backs, and the later carved top and back mandolin.
More on Mandolins
~ CHECKING OUT THE COMPETITION ~
Orville Gibson
James Ashborn for William Hall & Son
Joseph Bohmann
Johann Stauffer
Schmidt & Maul
Tilton Improvement
~ CLEANING HOUSE ~
I love these, but I really need to make some room for new ones.
Acoustic Instruments for Sale
Electric Instruments for Sale
I am not in the business of buying and selling guitars, but am interested in purchasing specific unique instruments to round out my collection to present you with a web site with as complete a picture as possible to help you learn. I am interested in substantially original examples made from the 1800's to 1960's by Stauffer, Panormo, Schmidt & Maul, C. F. Martin, Martin & Coupa, Martin & Schatz, Martin & Bruno, Martin & Zoebisch, John Coupa, Oliver Ditson, Southern California Music, John Wanamaker, Wm. J. Smith, Wurlitzer, S.S. Stewart, Orville Gibson, the Gibson Company, and the Larson brothers. I am not hunting for bargains, but seeking quality intstruments at a price that is fair to the buyer and seller alike.
To see Robert's new web site illustrating the development of the Martin Guitar from 1833 to the 1960's, visit:
To see Robert's new web site illustrating the development of the Early Gibson Guitar, visit:
earlygibson.com
To see Robert's new web site illustrating the development of the post-Orville Gibson Guitar, visit:
oldgibson.com
To See Robert Corwin's Classic Photography of Folk and Roots Musicians, visit:
robertcorwin.com
For Information on Photography for
Exhibition, Publication, CD's, Promotion, Web Pages, Tour Books,
to Purchase Photographic Prints, or
To Contact Robert With Questions About An Early Martin Guitar:
e-mail: Robert Corwin
I'm more than happy to answer questions to the best of my limited ability about features of the
instruments I've photographed and studied from luthiers restoring vintage Martins or building new instruments.
The Early Martin and Vintage Martin web pages were first created in September, 2009.
Updated 1/1/13
Entire site copyright ©1998 through 2013 Robert Corwin/Photo-Arts. All rights reserved.
Photographs and written material on this site may not be reproduced without permission.