In the under-$1K bracket there are some vintage bargains to be had, if you look around:
- Epiphone ('40s/50s New York, '60s Kalamazoo) Zenith
- Guild A-50 Cordoba
- Gibson L-48
- Gretsch New Yorker
- Gretsch Corsair
- Harmony Cremona
- Harmony Patrician
- Regal and National 16" instruments made by Gibson/Harmony/Kay
I've also seen the occasional Eastman non-cutaway AR605 - an all-solid/all-carved 16-incher - selling around $1K, and their 1920's Gibson L-4 clone AR400 in the $600-800 bracket; on the other hand, if you just want a comp box on the cheap the recently-discontinued Godin 5th Avenue acoustic can be had for as little as $250-300 used/$450-500 as new-old-stock, and while it won't sound quite like a carved-top jazzbox it'll give you plenty of classic archtop rhythm "bark" when set up with medium-gauge monel strings or heavy-gauge phosphor-bronze...