Help identifying my Great-Great-Aunt's bowlback?

[DilettantePicker]

Hi!

I've been lurking around a while, and thought I'd finally register so I could get a bit of advice. A while ago I ended up with my great-great-aunt's bowlback. It lived in the closet for a while- until I recently built a wall display for my guitars and ukes, and ended up hanging the mandolin alongside. Well, I couldn't have it up there with those nasty old unplayable strings on it, so I put some new GHS ultra-lights on it, tuned it up, and learned some chords. I think it sounds pretty good- though I really don't have a lot of reference....

That story all being a lead in to the fact that I'd love to learn something more about it. I'm going to try and attach some pictures, but here's some info about it. It doesn't have any label inside the bowl- as far as I can tell. There's a stamp on the back of the headstock, but unfortunately the top line is illegible. From what I can tell, it reads "OE_____ER MAKER PHILADELPHIA". I found a list of historical mandolin makers online somewhere- but nothing seems to match with that stamp. There's also a serial stamped on top of the headstock- 20649.

It's got 29 ribs in the bowl- sadly with a small separation between a couple that I may eventually fix. Lots of mother of pearl- all around the edge, around the hole, and up and down the fingerboard.

If anyone can help me out, I'd love to know more about this old beauty.

Thanks!

98074

98073

98075

[Jim Garber]

I don't have access to my picture files but I would hazard a guess that the stamp reads George Bauer who was a pretty prominent maker of mandolins at that time in Philadelphia -- around the turn of the last century.

I can check tonight for similar examples tho a few folks here might beat me to it.

[mrmando]

The first letter is a G, not an O. It's a George Bauer. Mugwumps has him listed as active from 1894 to 1911 in Philadelphia:
http://www.mugwumps.com/AmerInstMkr.html

But this thread suggests that the George Bauer Co. made these mandolins only between 1903 and 1907:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?74386-George-Bauer-Mandolin-Maker-Help!

[mrmando]

Shucks, Jim beat me to it.

[DilettantePicker]

Well, I'm not sure of the etiquette of posting the first response to my own thread, but I just think I figured out the maker. Here's a link to a thread talking about a George Bauer guitar:

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/reply/1542353/Re-Cool-George-Bauer-on-EBAY#.URQO7KVBNUo

About halfway down the page, there's a picture of a headstock stamp that looks an awful lot like the one on mine- but much more legible. "GEO. BAUER" fits nicely.
Anyone know anything about George Bauer mandolins? ;)

As as I post this- it's no longer the first reply........... (Edit)

[Jim Garber]

Shucks, Jim beat me to it.

Only by 2 minutes, Martin!

[DilettantePicker]

Thanks for the pointers guys.

I found an interesting pamphlet online apparently from 1898 listing all of Bauer's line. Looks like I may have a No. 40, based on the ribs and inlay described in the pamphlet.

http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p268001coll12/id/17514/show/17488

[Jim Garber]

Thanks, Dil! That is a very nice resource.