Lyon & Healy Leland Brilliantone Mandos

[Tom Glen]

I have two L H Leland Brilliantone Mandolines with bent top and flat back. I believe they were made around 1910-1912. The two mandos have different measurements: Both are approximately 22 1/2 inches long. One has a scale length of 12 1/2 inches and is 8 inches wide. The other has a scale length of 13 1/2 inches and is 9 inches wide. I believe the one with 13 1/2 scale length is a standard mandolin, but what type of mando is the other. Thanks for any help you can provide. I would have included pictures but my camera is broken.

[MikeEdgerton]

They first appeared in the L&H catalog about 1911 and they had a mandolin and a short scale mandolin in the line up. There's a catalog picture on page 116 of Hubert Pleijsier's book Washburn Prewar Instrument Styles (http://www.amazon.com/Washburn-Prewar-Instrument-Styles-Pleijsier/dp/157424227X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275779446&sr=8-1) that was contributed by cafe member Jim Garber. There's also a bit of information about the line. It was short lived.

[Tom Glen]

Thanks Mike for the information. Indeed, one of my friends just brought over his Washburn Prewar Instruments book and we found the page you referred to. Based on this information I guess one could assume that this was the short scale model. They also had a Piccolo model with a 10 1/2 inch scale length in the L H Leland line. Thanks again Mike for your suggestion. Does anyone have any other information on the short scale models?

[MikeEdgerton]

You should also look at this (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?3851-Leland-Brilliantone-Piccolo&highlight=leland) thread.

For those that don't have the Washburn book here is the catalog page from a previous post by Jim Garber:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=37358&d=1230697730

Also, here (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/search.php?query=leland&exactname=0&starteronly=0&forumchoice%5B%5D=&prefixchoice%5B%5D=&childforums=1&titleonly=0&searchdate=0&beforeafter=after&do=process) is a search with every mention of Leland from every thread on the cafe.

[Jim Garber]

Here are my two Lelands, standard and piccolo.

[Tom Glen]

Jim,
If you don't mind providing this information. What is the length, width and scale length of your standard and piccolo Lelands. Thanks for all your help.

[barney 59]

Any Leland mandolins made by Larsons? Someone is running one on ebay that is making that claim.

[MikeEdgerton]

The seller on eBay is a cafe member. I don't know anything about that connection. Anything is possible. The Larson's built some deluxe reverse scroll model mandolins that were an L&H patented design.

[barney 59]

I found one on Player's Vintage Instruments that makes the same claim. Banana knows his stuff --These come up from time to time--so the next question would be --Are they all Larson's or just some of them and how do you tell?