Round Back 19th Century Madolin Identification

[guitartree]

We have this mandolin in our shop and are having trouble identifying it. The craftsmanship is excellent and it plays and sounds great. The tailpiece is stamped with a Patent date of 94 (1894). The back of the headstock is stamped NO. 90. The leather case has a logo on it that has a circle that is segmented into three parts (like an inverted Mercedes Benz logo) and says either LHC or HLC and "Trade Mark" around it. Any opinions or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Matt/ Guitar Tree

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[brunello97]

Nice looking mandolin. My guess would be that it was made by AC Fairbanks, one of the parent firms of Vega out of Boston. I'm not 100% on this as yours is not a perfect match to examples I have on file.

The 'clues' would be the symmetrical taper and point at the end of the fretboard--this was not a common feature. The "N.0." + number on the headstock back does show up on some AC F examples, though. Haven't seen that elsewhere.

The headstock shape doesn't match the Fairbanks examples I have in my files. They did use the same tailpiece on some of their models, but those were not uncommon on other makes as well.

Fairbanks mandolins did sport engraved metal ID tags as well as labels inside the bowl. Hard to imagine both would be missing.

Hopefully, some others can weigh in with there opinions and perhaps more closely related examples.

Mick

[guitartree]

Thank you for your insight. I have located a couple of examples of Fairbanks mandolins with the same headstock shape. I look forward to more opinions.

All the best
Matt/ Guitar Tree

[brunello97]

Just to clarify my earlier comment on Fairbanks relationship to Vega: My use of the term "parent firm" was sloppy. Vega was formed out of the remnants of a few instrument companies operating in Boston at the time, Fairbanks being one of them. They were not a "parent company" in the modern sense of say, Pepsico, GM, etc.

Mick