Guitar Formerly Owned by James "Son" Thomas

This c. 1900 Wolfram Triumph acoustic guitar with aluminum-clad neck was owned and inscribed by Delta Blues musician James “Son Ford” Thomas.  

Nicknamed “Son Ford” in grade school after a penchant for sculpting Ford tractors out of clay, Thomas bought his first guitar at 16 and taught himself by listening to the Blues on record and the radio, as well as being mentored by his uncle, Delta Blues musician Joe Cooper. By the 1940s he was playing parties, juke joints, and barrel houses across towns in the Mississippi Delta such as Leland, Greenville, and Jackson. Thomas’ soulful and yearning vocals were a perfect counterpoint to his delicate fingerpicking and propulsive rhythmic playing. Thomas inscribed his Wolfram Triumph acoustic guitar and its case with his name and the town of Leland, Mississippi, where he lived for much of his life. While he started playing the Blues as a teenager, he recorded for the first time in the late 1960s, at the height of the revival of Blues music in popular culture. In addition to music, Thomas was also a talented artist, often sculpting macabre busts and skulls, influenced by his one-time profession as a gravedigger, using clay dug from the banks of the Yazoo River. 

The Wolfram Guitar Company was founded in 1891 by Theodore Wolfram. By 1901, they had sold 10,000 instruments, and continued from 1901-1910 as the Wolfram Guitar & Mandolin Company, after which the company folded. Wolfram was the first company to feature an aluminum-clad fretboard, patented in March 1893. Only 300 aluminum-clad Triumph models were produced.