View Full Version : mandolin info please
richs1921house
May-22-2004, 11:52am
I recently received this tear drop mandolin which was my great grandfathers, dating it to the turn of the century. Can anyone provide me with any info? It has no markings, so I assume it once had a paper label. It has mother of pearl and tortoise shell inlays; between the pegs are crescent moon, star, and trefoil pearl inlays. The body has one crack in it, and some of the inlay around the neck is missing. Any idea who made it (kind of resembles Washburn to me), its age, rarity, approximate value? Thanks. #Rich
http://www.geocities.com/richs1921house/mandy
It says page unavailable for viewing, sorry, can't see it.
jim simpson
May-22-2004, 4:39pm
After taking a long hard look at this here mandolin of yours..... just kidding!, I would like to have seen it too. It is possible that your mandolin is a one-off. I picked up an old flat top mandolin a while back (at auction) that had the nicest Brazilian rosewood back and sides and had a pickguard with nice inlay. It had no label, #s, etc. It did share similar features to other well known makers of the period (turn of the century?) but I could not find a match that could clearly idintify it. I thought it was kind of cool that it was possibly a one-off and the person that ended up buying it from me liked it for it's own merit, not who made it.
richs1921house
May-22-2004, 5:54pm
Sorry, don't know why the link won't work from here (I can't get it to open from here either). However, when I type www.geocities.com/richs1921house/mandy into the address bar, it works.
Jim Garber
May-22-2004, 6:00pm
Hard to do an id on it. There were literally thousands of these bowlbacks made in the latter 19th early 20th century in this country. Many were made in or around Chicago, somwwhat related to Lyon & Healy/Washburn. Yours has some elements of ones I have seen but no absolute id here.
Jim
John Zimm
May-24-2004, 11:29am
Okay, I'll try again here.
I hope you don't mind, but here is the picture of the mandolin towards which the link should send you:
Jim Garber
May-24-2004, 12:08pm
It also bears resemblance to a B&J (Bugeleisen and Jacobson) who were NY distributors. Many of their models bear the label Victoria. One i have seen has a moon and star on the peghead. Are there any remnants of a paper label at all? The Victoria labels were often black.
In any case, I would say that this is a lower end model. Rarity... not really. Value? As is with cracks etc, maybe 50-75. Fix it up and play it ... or hang it on the wall.
Jim