S.S. STEWART

S.S. Stewart was established in the 1870s by Samuel Swain Stewart in Philadelphia, PA. Stewart initially sold banjos and was one of the first to apply mass production techniques to instrument building with good consequences. Stewart banjos were sold directly to the public while Acme-branded banjos also built by Stewart were sold by Sears, Roebuck, & Co. Stewart became partners with well-known guitar builder George Bauer and issued guitars under the Stewart & Bauer trademark from Philadelphia. Stewart passed away in 1898.
In 1915, distributor Buegeleisen & Jacobson purchased the S.S. Stewart trademark and used it intermittently. Between circa 1923 and 1925, Buegeleisen & Jacobson ordered ukuleles and other stringed instruments from Martin guitars in Nazareth, PA. In circa 1931, Buegeleisen & Jacobson contracted Gibson to build a guitar and banjo under the S.S. Stewart brand. The guitar was built in the style of a Gibson L-2 while the banjo was built in the style of a Gibson TB-11. The Stewart name also appears on a series of entry level to medium grade guitars built by Harmony in the 1950s and 1960s and others for Weymann. S.S. Stewart-branded guitars from this era are very similar in design to Harmony guitars from the same era. Source: Tom Wheeler, American Guitars, Mike Longworth, Martin Guitars: A History, and Paul Fox, The Other Brands of Gibson.