Hey Nightfire,
I have my dad's old Kay archtop from 1948. Although I believe Kay was a department store type brand, he bought the best one they had (couldn't spring the extra $75 for a bottom-of-the-line Gibson (damn!). It is a beautiful instrument with lots of inlays and nice bindings - also has a nice plucky, retro, mid-rangey kind of sound. Kind of hard to play though as the action is less than great.
I've seen a few older models similar to mine for a few hundred on ebay and many cheaper models for $100 or less. Just a thought...