Vinaccia mandolin ?

**hcockwill** · Mar-31-2012, 12:20pm

I'm new to the Cafe.

I posted this in pictures but someone told me that I'd be better posting in this forum.

Years ago I saw an advert for old wood in the north of the UK. Turns out it was the son of a deceased Violin Maker - I bought several veneers and as I was leaving when I saw an instrument hanging on the wall that I ended up buying for very little.

I've done research and think its a Vinaccia from around 1770 in rather wose wear than I'd like!

You get to understand a lot about how they were constructed though !

I've collected references to early (1770s or so) vinaccias from around the word and have likely 40 or so from that period I know of. Just found a fantastic PDF in Italian - Sapienza University Di Roma - La Catalogazione Dei Mandolini with masses of pictures.

Does anyone reckon they know which Vinaccia family member this is by? There is no label.

Can anyone recommend a good luthier experienced on Vinaccia to restore - it would be nice to restore to playable condition but this may not be possible.

Does anyone know what the frets were made of - silver? Some have been replaced with mahogany slips.

Also does anyoine know of paintings of the period that celebrate / show neapolitan mandolins being played. I recall one years back in the Brussels music museum - aposter but cannot locate.

Any help appreciated.

Regards Hugh

**Graham McDonald** · Mar-31-2012, 6:53pm

There were four Vinaccias (at least) building mandolins and other instruments in the second half of the 18th century. The father Genarro (often latinized as Januarius on the labels) was active from 1755-1788 according to Robert Lundberg in an article in American Lutherie some years ago. There were three sons, Antonio, Giovanni (Johanies) and Vincenzo all working in the same period and there are certainly labels from all four around 1770. I am not sure if anyone has ever studied enough of them to establish individual differences in style and even then there are similarities between Vinaccia instruments and their contemporaries like the Filano family and Luigi Cardillo, but perhaps there are experts that can pick out individual differences.

At least you seem to have most of the bits 8-)

Interesting paper from Rome as well.

cheers

graham

**brunello97** · Mar-31-2012, 8:03pm

Hugh, Thank you for the link to the mandolin research document. It is the PhD thesis by Sig. Terranova. It appears to be a quite an effort at cataloging the range and typologies of the mandolins in the museum and their morphologies/taxonomies. He is setting up a welcome means to compare and contrast a set of mandolin elements. A nice bit of work. I really just skimmed it now (we're watching "Rome" on Netflix). A web site of the project seems to be in the offing. Lots of it seems given cursory attention but also plenty of nuggets to unearth. Nice looking bibliography as well.

I look forward to reading it in full in the morning.

Mick

**hcockwill** · Apr-01-2012, 4:58am

Graham,

Thanks. for the explanation. Having looked at a few I think it could be by Vincenzo - Thanks for explaining Genarro vs Januarius it had me thrown originally !

For others the link on pdf is:

http://padis.uniroma1.it/bitstream/1...0mandolini.pdf

Regards Hugh

**hcockwill** · Apr-01-2012, 5:00am

Mick, thanks - I'm brushing up my italian :-)

Would be nice to have an english translation - its looks worthy of it .I have an Italian friend so who knows!

Link to pdf is here for others:

http://padis.uniroma1.it/bitstream/1...0mandolini.pdf

Regards Hugh

**Tavy** · Apr-01-2012, 6:08am

Is there a direct link to the PDF anywhere?

**hcockwill** · Apr-01-2012, 8:47am

John,

The previous link should have worked but here it is again:

http://padis.uniroma1.it/bitstream/1...0mandolini.pdf

regards Hugh

**Tavy** · Apr-01-2012, 12:03pm

Originally Posted by hcockwill

John,

The previous link should have worked but here it is again:

http://padis.uniroma1.it/bitstream/1...0mandolini.pdf

regards Hugh

Apologies, I missed your previous posts somehow. In any case the University site seems to be down at present, maybe while they catalog Lady Gaga's extensive mandolin collection?

**Martin Jonas** · Apr-01-2012, 5:04pm

Great find!

As far as luthiers for restoration are concerned, the obvious choice in the UK would have to be Martin Bowers in Maldon, Essex. He not only maintained Alison Stephens' 1764 Vinaccia but also built a precise copy for her when she decided that the original was getting too frail for concert use. So, he should know the construction details inside out.

Martin

**brunello97** · Apr-01-2012, 6:45pm

Originally Posted by Tavy

Apologies, I missed your previous posts somehow. In any case the University site seems to be down at present, maybe while they catalog Lady Gaga's extensive mandolin collection?

John, I was able to DL the Catalogazione before the site locked up. I'd be happy to send it along if you (or anyone else) would like a copy sooner, rather than later. I assume the site should be back up. I shrunk the file in Acrobat so it is attachable. PM me with an address. It's worth the read.

Mick

**Tavy** · Apr-02-2012, 6:23am

Originally Posted by brunello97

John, I was able to DL the Catalogazione before the site locked up. I'd be happy to send it along if you (or anyone else) would like a copy sooner, rather than later. I assume the site should be back up. I shrunk the file in Acrobat so it is attachable. PM me with an address. It's worth the read.

It's back up, looks interesting, even if I can't get much past the pictures and their captions

**Jim Garber** · Apr-02-2012, 8:35am

Hugh:
I was wondering where all my colleagues were... I posted on your post a picture thread. There is usually no need to post twice since most of us have excellent searching skills and can find what we are interested easily in any category.

**hcockwill** · Apr-02-2012, 2:29pm

Martin

Thanks - found him referenced on Alison Stephens web page together with pictures of vinny the original.

Look forward to getting in touch with him

Regards Hugh