Search:

Here are the mandolins from the 1921 Sears catalog. I get a chuckle out of the "American or Flat Style. Played Exactly Like the Regular Style." So, in 1921 the bowl back was still a "regular style"...

Thanks Jim, but don't go to a lot of extra effort just for this. The more I look into it, the more it seems like a rat hole. An except from the book "Vintage Guitars" (available online) says the 1895...

I agree the hyperbole in Music Trade Review is pretty amazing, especially surrounding some of the crazy inventions. That 75,000 mandolin number from 1892 is particularly suspect. However, clearly...

Thanks Jim. Do you have any attribution on the one in your last three pictures? It is certainly an exact match other than the tuning buttons.

I had seen your 1912 catalog picture elsewhere, but...

"When this was made, the furniture-trade purfling would've been brightly-colored -- probably oranges, reds, and yellows." - from that same Jake link. So they apparently got this stuff via furniture...

Thanks to the great website by Jake Wildwood, I have found a fairly close match titled "1890s Lyon & Healy Bowlback Mandolin":...

An except from a genealogy by my grandmother Martha:

"The Logues were musical and loved a good time. They had reddish hair and very fair skin. Both John [John Miller Logue] and his son George...

You've probably seen variations of this story a thousand times, but here goes.

First, the facts. I inherited this mandolin from my great-grandmother in 1979. I'm not sure if she passed away that...