my new old mandolin ...

[Leo37]

Hello to all,

my name is Leo and this is my first posting here.

So I would like to tell you something about me. 61 years old and since nearly 50 years a guitar player. Later I add saxophone, flute and double bass - recently I got a mandolin. A German Vogtland-Style Instrument.



This mandolin has a very nice, sweet, responsive tone and it is a pleasure to play.

Yesterday I bought an italian mandolin. It comes from an old professional player who bought the instrument around 1930. He could not remember the brand. Theres no paper inside. Maybe theres somebody out there who put the details together and has an idea. I've heard that there are some Calaces on the market wich were delievered without a paper inside.



Please remember that english not my home language and I am not able to describe things so exact as would do it in german. Pardon for that.

Leo

[tkdboyd]

Is it just an illusion or does the fretboard have a radius to it? If that is the case, my very limited knowledge would point away from Calace, and more towards the "Roman style" But I am by no means an expert.
Beautiful mandolin, either way!

[JeffD]

I would love to see a close up of that bowl, especially where the staves come together at the heel, or base of the neck.

[Leo37]

Yes, it has a radius similar to Gibson Dreadnaught fretboards

[Leo37]

maybe this can help

[pfox14]

Fine workmanship on the bowl back. Well above the average mandolin of this design. Looks like the arm rest was added much later. What is written on the top?

[zedmando]

Beautiful instrument--I'd love to play something like that.

[plinkey]

What is written on the top?

"Apus" ? Bird of paradise ?

[nico verde]

Reviving a very old thread, it seems that Apus was the brand used to sell in Germany the mandolins built by the Neapolitan luthier Giovanni Kasermann. Apus mandolins also rarely have Kasermann's label too, like in this one sold years ago (luckily I had saved the pictures) https://picclick.co.uk/Concert-Mando...l#&gid=1&pid=4