Need info on this stella

[DryBones]

my sons girlfriend brought her grandfathers old mandolin by so I could help identify it and check it out for playability. Sticker inside looked like it said Stella but was pretty worn so I couldn't see a model# or date. The body and neck were intact and straight but it was missing a screw in the tailpiece and the bridge was leaning a bit. I told her to back the string off until she could get the tailpiece fixed and then restring it with as light a guage string as possible. I may even order her some Jazzmando's for it! Anyway, let me know what you experts think about it. Thanks.
BTW,that pickguard was actually recessed into the top wood. Was that normal for this model?

[pjlama]

Well in the firs pic it looks like the neck was sawn in half

[DryBones]

better?

[pjlama]

I liked it the other way better, at first glance it looked like you sawed it in half.

[Jim Garber]

I have a similar-shaped, reddished-finished Stella that I currently have apart. The one you have pictured looks like a better quality model.

When I took mine apart I did notice how unfinished and crude the braces and interior finishing were. Of course, this was a budget model.

Here is the label on mine, pretty intact and looks like it might be the same as yours.

[MikeEdgerton]

I've never seen that headstock shape. If it's pre-1939 it was built by the Oscar Schmidt Company in Jersey City, NJ. After 1939 they were built by Harmony in Chicago. It looks more like the early Schmidt's than any Harmony I ever saw. That's assuming that it had a Stella label in it.

[DryBones]

best I can do for a label shot.

[Jimmie]

The binding and label, but most especially the inlaid pickguard, make it an Oscar Schmidt. They did all levels of guitars and mandolins, beginner's cheap birch to pro beauties like their Sovereigns; from the binding, headstock and grain of the top, I'd say this was high on the food chain.

[Jim Garber]

I've never seen that headstock shape.

Here's is mine with the same headstock shape.