An Old Rex...

[Spruce]

Here's a few pics of an old Rex bowlback that I picked up recently at a 2nd hand store...

Any info on these mandolins would be greatly appreciated--I know zip about bowlbacks.

Sure is some nice Brazialian rosewood in this instrument--love to have that whole tree...

[Spruce]

The label...

[Spruce]

Peghead...

[Spruce]

The back...

[Spruce]

65 bucks....

[Jim Garber]

I believe that Rex was a brand name sold by (possibly made by or for) Gretsch.

Jim

[Bob DeVellis]

I've picked up a few old wrecks, but never an old Rex.

[Eugene]

Yeah, Rex was the proto-Gretsch brand. In the early years of the 20th c., I believe Rex was a brand for instruments mostly made by the early incarnation of Kay. After 1920, Fred Gretsch's co. went off on its own and settled in NY, but this would have been post bowlback.