Howe Boston Bag - Type A Mandolin

[AMT1379]

I have a mandolin that I purchased somewhat recently. Type A (tear drop shape with flat back, neck/frets extend partially into the opening). It appears to be in it's "original" cloth bag. Snaps on the cloth bag say Howe Boston. No paper on/in it though. I've been googling around for months, but only information I have seen is about the Howe-Orme guitar-shaped mandolins. This one is not guitar shaped.

I did bring into a luthier I trust who did a great job getting it playable. Didn't know anything about it other than it looked vintage. There may be no way to know, but I thought I'd check here. It's perfect for my purposes, plays nice, holds a tune for weeks, but I would like to know more about it.

Any obvious place I'm missing?

- Aaron

[AMT1379]

Sorry, after doing some digging in the forum, I did see a note in a spruce-top restoration thread that I should not refer to it as a Type A. It does have a tear drop shape, flat back, and arched top.

[Jim Garber]

Best to post some photos of the mandolin in question. Elias Howe ran a music store and publishing house in Boston. He was involved with the Howe-Orme instruments but, as you note, this was not one of those. It is possible that the bag originally came with a different mandolin and not the one you have in it.

[allenhopkins]

"Flat back, arched top" does sound like Howe-Orme construction, since the H-O mandolinettos had a sort of "ridge" running longitudinally along the top, induced by heat-pressing. [U]Here's/URL] a good article, which you may have seen, on Elias Howe, his successors, and the Howe-Orme instruments.

Howe, in addition to the Howe-Orme guitar-shaped instruments, manufactured (or had manufactured) other types of mandolins, including bowl-backs. Orme is the one who patented the "belly ridge" or raised center section of the top. Elias Howe Co. was a large Boston music distributor, and very well could have handled mandolins produced by a variety of manufacturers.

Pics would definitely help.

[Steve L]

Are you sure you mean arched top and not bent top?

[AMT1379]

Thank you everyone. Pics tonight. Allenhopkins, I did see that article and thought it may be same company. And no Steve L. I'm not sure arched or bent, new to mandolins, been fooling around with guitars and banjos awhile though. The mandolin was added to further my secret plot to form a family bluegrass band.

[AMT1379]

Thank you all powerful Google, Steve L, it's a bent top. Horizontal bend at/near the bridge.

- Aaron

[Jim Garber]

As Aaron noted, this is a "tear drop shape with flat back". I know of no H-O mandolin that wasn't a guitar shape with a cylinder top. OTOH there certainly were Elias Howe branded bowlbacks. I have one example of a flatback, bent (or canted) top instrument. This was sold on eBay in May of 2007.

From the peghead shape this possibly was made by Regal and also looks similar in design to some Supertone mandolins sold by Sears in that period in the 1930s.

[AMT1379]

So here are the photos. So likely, it was just sold through Howe, but could have been manufactured from a number of sources. Good to know though. I didn't even think to post a pic of the bag. I'll do that tonight.


101843101844101845

[Jim Garber]

A thread with a very similar mandolin (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?73454-Can-someone-identify-this-Mandolin).

[AMT1379]

Jim,
Thank you for that lead. I think it's just amazing that these dime store instruments are alive and still kicking today. I don't think that will be the case with some of the cheap stuff being manufactured theses days.

Thank you to all.

- Aaron

[AMT1379]

Pics of the bag for future information hunters.
101894101895

[Jim]

The metal backed machinehead as well as the TS pick guard look very much like my 23 regal. Neck heel says Regal too.

[MikeEdgerton]

So here are the photos. So likely, it was just sold through Howe, but could have been manufactured from a number of sources. Good to know though. I didn't even think to post a pic of the bag. I'll do that tonight.


101843101844101845

Looks like a Regal to me.

[AMT1379]

Terrific. I appreciate the leads!

[Paulhill53]

Hello, I also just got the same mandolin in a faded green felt snap cloth bag with Howe marked on bag but no other markings on The instrument so if you have any info I'd love to hear about it.

seems too coincidental that two of the same oddball mandolin both wind up in Howe mandolin bags but they are another make



I have a mandolin that I purchased somewhat recently. Type A (tear drop shape with flat back, neck/frets extend partially into the opening). It appears to be in it's "original" cloth bag. Snaps on the cloth bag say Howe Boston. No paper on/in it though. I've been googling around for months, but only information I have seen is about the Howe-Orme guitar-shaped mandolins. This one is not guitar shaped.

I did bring into a luthier I trust who did a great job getting it playable. Didn't know anything about it other than it looked vintage. There may be no way to know, but I thought I'd check here. It's perfect for my purposes, plays nice, holds a tune for weeks, but I would like to know more about it.

Any obvious place I'm missing?

- Aaron

[MikeEdgerton]

That's assuming the bag or button wasn't made by a company by that name. That mandolin is a common mandolin that was sold under dozens of brand names and many were sold with no brand name. Companies like Regal, Oscar Scmidt, Harmony, and Kay built "for the trade", retailers and teachers. By the time that mandolin was built there were major companies relabeling instruments. People like Wurlitzer were buying from everyone. The fact that it ended up in the same bag just shows that the bag as sold with that model by somebody somewhere in the country.

[Rick Turner]

I've got one, too...mahogany with the bag as described above. It's a bit of a basket case, but it'll be a "retirement project" someday...

BTW, Elias Howe was one of the "inventors" of modern music publishing including self-teaching methods for a nice range of instruments. He started his music publishing business when he was barely 21, sold out to Oliver Ditson, then came back into the biz as a publisher, distributor, retailer, and collector of "vintage" instruments. His sons took over the business in the 1890s and it was they who were responsible with the partnership with Orme, a Canadian company for whom the real designer, James Back, worked. There are Orme instruments virtually identical to the Howe Orme ones, and they may have been made for Canadian distribution. I have a bunch of Howe Ormes and an Orme guitar...the mysterious one with two extra floating soundboards inside.