Bowlbacks of Note

[billkilpatrick]

looks like the ghost of mandolin past - haunting melodies?

[Jim Garber]

Ah, one of those fluttering butterfly mandolins. It is amazing that those genius Neapolitan luthiers were able to create early animations on their scratchplates.

[Tavy]

Ah, one of those fluttering butterfly mandolins. It is amazing that those genius Neapolitan luthiers were able to create early animations on their scratchplates.

Ah, makes perfect sense now - and there I was thinking it was built in vibrato

[brunello97]

Keeping up with the eccentrics, here is a Joseph Bohmann with some typically exuberant MOP. There appear to be Handel tuners as well. Looks to be in un poco sketchioso condition, thought.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Joseph-Bohma...ht_3880wt_1252

Mostly I am posting this because I'm still trying to figure out how to provide an alias for the lengthy url addresses. Feeling pretty dopey about it all….

Mick

[Graham McDonald]

Try using a word, like 'link' as the link, highlighting that and click on the link icon in the advanced message writing window (in the middle row, to the left of the envelope image) and a window will pop up where t you can paste in the URL

Ebay link

attached pic of the icons with the appropriate one circled in red


cheers

g

Keeping up with the eccentrics, here is a Joseph Bohmann with some typically exuberant MOP. There appear to be Handel tuners as well. Looks to be in un poco sketchioso condition, thought.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Joseph-Bohma...ht_3880wt_1252

Mostly I am posting this because I'm still trying to figure out how to provide an alias for the lengthy url addresses. Feeling pretty dopey about it all….

Mick

[brunello97]

Thanks, Graham, I'll give this a try.

Bohmann

for example.

Mick

edit: There you go. Seems to work. Thanks!

[Tavy]

Here's an interesting modern bowlback just sold on eBay UK. Made by Erich Wander who seems to be well known for his guitars, but I couldn't find much info on his mandolins?

[Schlegel]

Thought I'd preserve a pic of this Ebay auction- an ornate 20's design by Giovanni Montaldi:

[brunello97]

John, I had been tracking der Wanderer myself, hoping that we might learn something more about him, maybe from Martin or Alex or one of our northern friends.

Schlegel, that is an exuberant Montaldi. Nice to have it in the thread. The other examples of his work that I have in my files are much more 'traditional' in a Vinaccian style.

Mick

[Eugene]

That Montaldi has been available from the Music-Treasures collection for years, at least since 2003.

[brunello97]

That Montaldi has been available from the Music-Treasures collection for years, at least since 2003.

I have a hunch it isn't going anywhere fast.. Between you and me, it's pretty ghastly.

Mick

[JeffD]

Acquired from a woman who attended one of my Civil War concerts and was so moved by my rendition of Lorena that she wanted me to have her deceased husband's mandolin, which hasn't been played in the many years since he passed.

Eastern European am thinking, judging from the woman's accent, but I am not sure.

[Jim Garber]

Jeff: that bird is a common scratchplate motif. It looks old, maybe Italian, possibly from Catania, Sicily. Isn't that nice when these things happen -- a wonderful way to acquire an instrument with meaning.

[JeffD]

Without a story they are just hunks of wood. Hunks of wood that can sing, sure, but hunks of wood nonethelss.

[brunello97]

The vibe seems Catanese, but the squarish oval sound hole and headstock down look that obvious. The bird is a common theme for Sicilian scratch plates but, Jeff, the white-on-brown motif is exceptionally charming even if it is "less fancy" - (whatever that means.) Looks like sgraffito technique from ceramics.

Mick

[JeffD]

[QUOTE]

the white-on-brown motif is exceptionally charming even if it is "less fancy"

I agree. I love it.

Looks like sgraffito technique from ceramics.

Yea, I didn't know that was the word for it, but yes, a friend of mine does that with ceramic placques, scratching through the outer darker layer to make a sort of enhanced line drawing.

[brunello97]

Something new (to me, at least) and for other fans of Giuseppe Pugilisi:

Giuseppe Puglisi

This label, a version of another label from him, has an address for a shop on Via Grotte Bianchi in Catania.

Mick

[Jim Garber]

Mick: Could this be an earlier version of what became Puglisi Reale?

[brunello97]

Mick: Could this be an earlier version of what became Puglisi Reale?

Pretty sure it's the same guy. I have some labels that read "GPuglisi Reale e Figli" so I think it was a family continuum. I have a number of Giuseppe P's mandolins in my files, but this is a different street address from the examples I have.

I know it is a bit wonkish, but I do enjoy finding the street addresses of these old shops as a lot of times the buildings still exist on site, unlike here where our cities turn over buildings so much faster. I need to check through my examples of the 'newer' colored Puglisi Reale labels to see if there was an address for that iconic stabilimento that is illustrated. I don't recall seeing one, but they changed that label a number of times and I might have missed it.

Mick

[KristinEliza]

Yesterday I visited my repairman to get a new bridge and nut made for my Calace. He had recently acquired a Waldo bowlback that he thought I might be interested in. Same old story...an older lady thought he might like it...it was her late husband's...so she gave it to him. There is a label inside, but I didn't get a very good look at it through the F-holes.

[Eugene]

Yikes!

[Jim Garber]

I just sent the link to that to Paul Ruppa who has been researching about Waldo instruments. That is the most ornate Waldo I have seen.

The biggest problem with those is the area on the top between the f-holes -- more often than not it is warped.

[KristinEliza]

I think the most difficult part of the restore will be the ornamentation. Structure wise, there are several cracks in the top, and a few open seams between the ribs on the bowl and a few open seams on the top...but lots of missing ornamentation. He's not to sure what to do with the inlay surrounding the top plate. There didn't look to be any (if so, very minimal) warping between the f-holes.

I'm most interested in seeing what happens if he needs to take the top off...how do you do that with that fingerboard????

[Tavy]

Holy Mother of Pearl Batman!

That's some instrument, strangely I kind of like it in a totally over the top kind of way

Kristin: I've had the top off a bowlback with an all MOP fingerboard - the procedure is the same for a regular bowlback - remove and cut through at the 10th fret, then remove the top complete with the lower part of the fretboard. The problem is that once it's all reassembled you can't re-level the fretboard - in my case the MOP was too thin to risk sanding level, in his case the MOP is engraved which you would need to preserve. So you just have to get things as level as you can, and then do all the leveling in the frets. A much bigger issue for that one would be all the decoration around the bowl edge.

[brunello97]

...That is the most ornate Waldo I have seen..

I should know better than to quote my friends out of context but...

I wonder if that came out of the Saginaw shop or all the decorative embellishment was out-sourced to an ur-Tsai figure. Actually, that's not a fair comparison. This is exponentially nicer.

So turnabout is fair play: "My Waldo was warped, too." You can quote me on that.

Mick