Any info on 50's gagliano mandolins made by kay ?

[mandotool]

I just came into possession of a 50's ? Gagliano mandolin w/ F-holes and red sunburst finish...
Solid spruce arch top,one pc carved maple back,multiply maple sides?,two pc neck w/ no trusstrod...
overall decent build quality,w/ elevated fretboard ,21 frets overall.. meets the body at the 12th..Interesting tone.
There are no labels or any makings inside ,Just Gagliano on the peghead..and again on the trebleside of the top
My Internet search came up w/ nothing on gagliano mandolins and very little on gagliano guitars....
Any info or links much appreciated...
I will try to attach a photo..It's my first post..here goes.. Thanks to All

[MikeEdgerton]

I think you'll find it was built in Germany, I think you'll find it's earlier than the 50's.

Take a look at this (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=13;t=46546;hl=martin+jonas) thread.

[mandotool]

You are correct sir..tis a Hoyer afterall.
Your link had a PDF of their 1948 "katalog"..
Great info..Thanks a bunch..

[Martin Jonas]

Although I agree that yours looks very much like the mandolin in the 1948 Hoyer catalogue, I suspect it was actually made by another German company, namely Hofner. Hofner definitely built archtop and solid-body guitars sold under the Gagliano logo, as shown in the "vintage instruments" section of their web site here (http://www.hofner.com/gab/en/showroom/56/page,shop.category/category_id,187/). Note that the Gagliano logo they show is the same as on your mandolin. Quite independently, Kay also made guitars with the Gagliano brand, but they used a different logo. No doubt, both of those distributors wanted a bit of spurious credibility from a name association with the 18th century violin maker of that name, much like calling your instruments "Stradivarius".

Mind you, all of the Hofner guitar-shaped mandolins I've seen in the past have had cat's eye soundholes, rather than f-holes, whereas Hoyer used f-holes such as on yours. It might just be possible that Gagliano was a distributor's label used on Hofner guitars and on Hoyer mandolins, but while there's plenty of info on the web for a link between the Gagliano and the Hofner names, I couldn't find any such link with Hoyer.

Yours looks like a nice instrument, in any case. My own German archtop, shown in the thread linked by Mike above, is now also fully set up for playing, and really rather nice.

Martin