Vintage Repair: Bridge for an 1852 Ashborn

[redir]

Do any of the vintage repair luthiers here know anything about Ashborn guitars?

I've got one in the shop for some restoration work. I have the original bridge and one that is half complete that was made by a luthier who in the process of doing this work retired and just gave up, apparently.

Anyway the bridge he built is very different from the original. The original one shown in the pic was modified for a tail piece but you can see what was once there. It's a tie block bridge and is all one piece, probably with an ivory saddle. The copy bridge has this dovetail cut out which is just very odd.

Here's the original bridge:



Here's the copy. You cannot see it but that is a drilled out tie block



And here is what the customer wants



It seems as though the luthier who made this bridge was going for the original design as in the last pic. But that last pic doesn't look like it has a dovetail like cut out in it.

So my question is basically, has anyone ever seen a bridge like this? I could easily make an ebony wedge that would fit the dovetail and cap it with ivory but it seems like a very inefficient design. Would it get glued together? Was the dovetail some sort of way to adjust the bridge perhaps?

I've never seen one like it and it's really hard to find info online about it.

[Frank Ford]

Martin used a similar style with a dovetailed-in saddle, about that same time:



This one is ivory.




The dovetailed ends keep the saddle from rocking forward.

[redir]

I was hoping you would chime in Frank, thanks.

I guess the difference here though is that the Ivory Martin saddle is all one unit, as in the dovetail slotted out part of it has a base? Where as this Ashborn will have to sit right on the top.