Mandolin ID Help

[shunkpenn]

Attached are some pics of another interesting bowl back mandolin. The instrument appears to be marked Musikhaus with the name Willy Benkert Zwickau Bahnhofstn 54. I did a little research and couldn't find any information on the maker. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

[shunkpenn]

I did find him listed on a German website:

First name Willy Benkert
Profession Instrument maker
Street address Bismarckstraße 3
Place Zwickau

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The date of the listing was 1906.....anybody know of his work?

[MikeEdgerton]

One of our resident European Bowlheads will probably be able to give you some information. They generally post in the evening hours.

[brunello97]

Well, I hope Martin weighs in with something. He'd be the guy to know.

This is indeed a very interesting mandolin. I don't think I've seen one before which shows such obvious hybridity between Italian, US and sort-of-German sensibilities. Without the back of headstock engraving and tailpiece, I would have been certain this was an American mandolin (e.g. bowl shape, back of bowl construction, neck-to-head joint, the neck itself.) But I could list as many design details both for and against that assessment.

Very curious indeed. I look forward to seeing / hearing more.

Mick

[MikeEdgerton]

The company that stamped it could have been a reseller. It does look like a US made mandolin.

[allenhopkins]

Tuners seem identical to those on the Schroeder mandolin discussed in this thread. (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?87556-JG-Schroeder-Mandolins-Any-info-on-this-one-Bowlback-experts)

Schroeder, listed in the Mugwumps Index, was a "manufacturer, importer, and dealer" in stringed instruments around 1890-1905, located in NY City. So could this Benkert instrument be built in Europe to US specs -- or alternatively built in the US to European specs?

Not suggesting any relationship with Schroeder, but evidently whoever built the two instruments was using the same brand of tuners.

The inlay, purling and rosette on this mandolin really look European to me, but the shape is, as suggested, more American.

[nickster60]

My European craftsman came over during that period. Could have been a European immigrant working in the US

[shunkpenn]

Here is a link to a German genealogy website that lists Willy Benkert as an instrument maker in 1906 http://adressbuecher.genealogy.net/addressbook/5474634c1e6272f5d015badd?
So the question is why would he still mark the instrument as being from Germany if he immigrated to the U.S.? Is this a common practice for other instruments?

[allenhopkins]

Seems to me the instrument was marked with Benkert's name for sales in Germany. Benkert's listed as an "instrument maker" so perhaps he built it. On the other hand, it does look like a US-made instrument -- albeit with a European-appearing pickguard and other ornamentation -- so perhaps he had it made to his specs in the US and imported to Germany for sales. That seems a bit unlikely, since there were German shops making mandolins in Markneukirchen and elsewhere, but it's possible.

The fact that it has tuners that look identical to those on a mandolin attributed to J G Schroeder, an American turn-of-the-century builder, importer and dealer, may or may not be significant. Hardware for stringed instruments was sold to many builders, in Europe and the US, so it wouldn't be odd for different builders to use the same tuners.

Benkert in Germany, and Schroeder in the US, were both active around 1900. They may have obtained instruments, and/or parts, from the same sources. There may be no relationship between this instrument and Schroeder's, other than the tuner similarity. Just an interesting possibility.

Do you have any indication that Benkert emigrated to the US? It does seem unlikely that he'd label it to be sold in his store (Musikhaus) if he weren't still at 54 Station Street in Zwickau.

[brunello97]

Yeah, Allen, those tuners were used by builders both in the US and Italy as well. Hard to pin the ID on those, in my view.

Mike may be on to it in terms of an odd case of reverse-importation. The headstock and bowl just look so American. These instruments were built on molds so I'm not sure just how something would be built to spec unless the molds were sent along. Why would a builder in Germany (who had his own bowl-molds) want or need an American shaped bowl? Hard to figure why that would be necessary or desired.

The weird smoking gun for me is the fretboard end profile which follows the curvature of the oval hole. This was rarely, if ever, done in the US except by perhaps recent Italian immigrants. You don't see it on L+H, Martin, Weymann, Schmidt, Vega etc. except maybe in odd, unique cases. A very Italian detail, though there is no way that this mandolin was made in Italy.

I don't have an answer as this one challenges a lot of my suppositions about things. Ockham's Razor might once again be relevant.

Mick