This is a very rare K-48 manufactured by the Kay Musical Instrument Company. Limited numbers were produced from 1947 through 1951. The K-48 was Kay's answer to the Gibson L-5 and Epiphone Deluxe. The guitar featured a solid handcarved spruce top, highly flamed maple back and sides as well as an ebony fretboard and bridge. The body was bound both front and back with 5 ply cream/black binding. The ebony and pearl headstock sported top of the line Kluson Sealfast tuners. It was available in either blonde or sunburst finish.

Jay Scott sums it up best in his book 50's Cool: Kay Guitars:

"A thick carved, solid spruce top, highly flamed maple back, sides and neck, scads of extra white and black celluloid binding and a Gibson Super 400-style ebony and real mother-of-pearl headstock and fingerboard motif highlight the K-48. Chrome plated Kluson "double ring" tuners, as used on the era's very besat archtops. and a large extension tailpiece reminicsent of that used on the gibson ES-300, emphasize the guitar's quality. The rare, blonde version offers contrasting tortoiseshell-plastic body, heel, fingerboard and headstock binding. The Artist model K-48 was not an archtop to be trifled with and a good example can sound as good as many a non-cutaway L-5."

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Sources: 50's Cool: Kay Guitars by Jay Scott and The Blue Book of Acoustic Guitars 9th Edition by Zachary R. Fjestad