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 year, or went into a nursing home and relatives dispersed her possessions. She was 96 when she died, and it was somewhere around that time. My great-grandfather was born in 1883. Their first daughter, my grandmother, was born in 1906. I received this mandolin in college because I played the guitar. We (my parents) had it marginally restored. You can see the repaired crack on the right side, and I think he shimmed up the bridge. I "played" it for probably a couple years, mostly making up tunes on my own and maybe working out some small mandolin bits from Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately very soon the left side of the face also cracked (see photos), and it became largely unplayable again. It's been "on display" ever since. My great-grandmother, sometime in her 90s, scrawled "Nancy" on it (see photo), because she wanted that granddaughter to have it. I got it instead.
Now the non-factual story. This was supposedly my great-great-grandfather's mandolin. He was a Civil War veteran. The Civil War stories I heard as a kid got mixed up with the mandolin, and for a long time I envisioned him having this mandolin during the war. I recently decided to try to find out the real history behind this, and quickly determined that there weren't any "American" mandolins during that period. Now I'm wondering if it was even his mandolin at all. He was born in 1844 and died young, even for that time, at 47 in 1891. So if it was his, this mandolin would have to be from 1891 at the very latest.
I've scoured the internet for a couple days, and the most I can determine is that it appears to be a Lyons & Healy with some characteristics of an American Conservatory. It has 18 ribs. The tuning pegs are odd; I have yet to see another example that are solid black. It's possible these were replaced during the minor restoration, but they seem to have an "old" character. The cloud-style base plate in general seems common from the early 1900s but has a small hole in the center not seen on most examples. The shape of the pick guard seems common among Lyon & Healy in the early 1900s as well, but I have yet to find one with the same inlay pattern. The tuning plates are secured with three screws - everything else I'm finding that looks vaguely similar has 5 screws. The inside is lined with a black fabric-like material. There are no labels or serial numbers or stamps or any other identifying marks anywhere that I can find. I even looked inside with a light and automotive mirror.
I'm a bit stumped because if this originated later than 1891, it means it must have been my great-grandfather's and not my great-great-grandfather's. And if it originated later than 1913, it means he started playing the mandolin in his 30s...
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