Tobbia Fiscer mandolin, Siena 1713

[Liuteria d'Insieme]

A costomer of our brought us this beutyful mandolin dated back to 1713.

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The ebony bowl with ivory spacers it's almost certainly original as the soundboard and parchmwwnt/wood rosette. I'm not sure about the originality of the neck and pegbox though.
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The instrument came with its original (almost sure about that) wooden case, I have more pictures of the mandolin but I need some time to devolpe them before posting.

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Marco

[Jim Garber]

That is a wonderful looking mandolin, Marco. Does it look like the bowl has had some restoration -- it looks like work was started on the top as well. Do you think that the neck was replaced later?

[Liuteria d'Insieme]

Weel, the bowl was damaged at some point (one of the points of the cap is missing), the pegbox is roughly carved and doesn't seem to be made by the same person who worked on the bowl. Adding to that 1713 looks a bit early for a six courses mandolin, my opinion is that it was built at first as a three/four courses mandolin and later pegbox was replaced to transfomr it into a six courses mandolin. The neck has a strange ebony veneer on it that doesn't seem to be orginal, probably it needed some adaptation too.

I will try to add some pictures in the next days if you are interested.

[Jim Garber]

Well, I could not buy it but I am always interested. Have you seen other mandolins or lutes by Fiscer?

[Liuteria d'Insieme]

Didn't mean "if you are interested to buy it" just if you are interested ;)

I built some mandolins based on an original model by his sons, I call it Fixer brothers as it was orignally reported this way in the collection catalogue, but their real name was Fiscer.

I will try to share some more pictures next week.

[billhay4]

Lovely instrument. Thank you for posting this, Marco.
Bill

[Jim Garber]

Your instruments look quite lovely, too, Marco. I enjoy looking at your site. There are a few of us classical folk who play this style of mandolin (not me, tho). I hope they can look here, too.

[Liuteria d'Insieme]

Thanks for your appreciation Jim, here are some new pictures of the mandolin:

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As you can see the bowl looks pretty good and well made, the profile is very delicate. I really like it.

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The pegbox is roughly carved and the decorations are not precise and clean. It makes me think that this pegbox was added later by someone else, I can't believe it wasmade byt the same person who worked on the bowl.

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The shellac/MOP decoration on the soundboard is something mysterious. I didn't understand if it's original or not, it was not common to see that on baroque mandolin, looks like a guitar decoration more than a mandolin one but a aprt of that the wood and parchment rosette is very similar to other originals I've seen .

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The case is beautiful and looks really a baroque one, is very similar to some lute cases of that period I've seen around.

[Nevin]

For a relative newby, how do you differentiate this from a lute? I know baroque lutes typically had more strings, including ones that could not be fingered but this looks like it has/had tied frets and a set bridge. I would not be able to tell it from a late renaissance lute.

[Liuteria d'Insieme]

For a relative newby, how do you differentiate this from a lute? I know baroque lutes typically had more strings, including ones that could not be fingered but this looks like it has/had tied frets and a set bridge. I would not be able to tell it from a late renaissance lute.

Well, the main difference stays in the dimensions: lutes, even soprano lutes, were generally bigger than mandolins. Strings can generally help to clarify what kind of instrument are you looking at: mandolins shows up at the end of 17 century as instruments with 3/4 courses and they reached the final 6 courses setup just at the half of 18 century, at that time lutes were already stringed with 11/13 courses in baroque tuning. Another good hint can be given by the pegbox: this kind of pegbox is typical on mandolins of the period but it was not used on lutes.