Stella Lap Steel Guitar

I have just recently acquired this Stella lap steel guitar. It still needs to be cleaned up and is still in fairly good condition. I was wondering if anybody can help me with identifying the year it was made. It also has the number 1490 stamped on the back of the tuning head. Any info would be greatly appreciated,
Thank you
-Brian

 

let's ask @all_fakes ..!!

 

I don't have a Stella serial number list; but I've seen quite a similar Stella lap steel listed as being from 1938, and that seems about right, possibly a little early. I'd probably have guessed 1940-1950.
Stella guitars were originally made by the Oscar Schmidt company, before they discontinued their guitar lines and focused on autoharps; the name was sold to Harmony in 1949. Considered a low to mid-range quality instrument.
Are you planning to play it, or resell? There's not a big market for lap steels, because there aren't a lot of people interested in playing them. If you're going to be playing it, there are some possible tunings listed in the article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_steel_guitar

 

And here's a listing for a 1937 Stella, looks very similar, so maybe 1937-1938 is about right. That date is quite early for any kind of electric guitar, but the craze for "Hawaiian music" that started in 1911 was still going strong then, and at that time a lap steel was most likely being used for Hawaiian music rather than blues or any of the genres that used electric slide instruments in later years.
http://barnband.bugaco.com/used/misc_str_inst/stella/_?product_id=27f4bb6f575b0c92

 

See !!!
I knew that was the man for the job !!!

 

This definitely helps a lot. I also have a M.Hohner's Hawaiian guitar pitch pipe no.P8, I'm assuming it came separate from the guitar itself as it isn't the same brand.

 

If it did belong to the owner of the lap steel, it tells us that he or she used the "A low bass" tuning, an open A chord with E in the bass. That is one of the earliest lap steel tunings, and I found a listing for that pitch pipe calling it 1940s vintage, which could confirm the dating on the guitar. See https://www.etsy.com/listing/224116467/vintage-m-hohner-no-p8-hawaiian-guitar