Umberto Ceccherini Mandolin

[sallyanne vallely]

Hello, I am new to this however I would like some advice please. I have found in my aunts attic an Umberto Ceccherini Mandolin, It has a label inside with number 2182 which reads both umberto ceccherini and alban voigt & co . There is a number of strings broken and few minor scratches, needs some tlc ! I have attached some pics and would welcome anyone's views as whether it is worth selling as along with clearing her home I need to cover the funeral costs. Thanking you in advance for your kind attention x

[Bruce Clausen]

Looks like it was a good instrument when new, probably around 1900. It's hard to tell from the photos what work it might need to get it playing again. If you tell us where you are, someone here may be able to recommend a nearby repair person who could check it out for you and do any necessary repairs. Ceccherini was one of the better brands, and your example looks like one of the fancier models; but unfortunately, there is not a large market for this style of mandolin anymore. They can be fine instruments, but sell at very low prices, often well under $1000. But it is a lovely old thing. Good luck with it!

[sallyanne vallely]

Thank you for reply, much appreciated. Think the general feeling from the family is rather than restore it just to sell it on to someone that will give it the attention it requires. We are in Oxfordshire in the UK. It is a lovely piece however my aunts funeral costs need to be covered ! Do you therefore think this site is the right media to sell it on and if so what price do you think we should be asking ? Thanking you in advance for your kind attention.

[Tavy]

Thank you for reply, much appreciated. Think the general feeling from the family is rather than restore it just to sell it on to someone that will give it the attention it requires. We are in Oxfordshire in the UK. It is a lovely piece however my aunts funeral costs need to be covered ! Do you therefore think this site is the right media to sell it on and if so what price do you think we should be asking ? Thanking you in advance for your kind attention.

They were good mandolins and it's worth selling - but to cover funeral costs - sorry no chance!

Last two on ebay.co.uk sold for about £200 (I know 'cos I bought one!), yours looks a little fancier so might fetch a little more, but it certainly looks like it needs some serious work which will put a lot of folks off... so it's hard to tell. Personally I think I would put it on an ebay auction - make sure you offer postage, and pack it really well (cardboard box and lots and lots of bubble wrap) when you ship it.

HTH, John.

[sallyanne vallely]

Thank you , never did expect it to cover the funeral costs, just some of the way towards it as we have other bits and bobs to sell also x thank you for your reply and helpful advise. Kind regards Sallyanne

[Martin Jonas]

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, and on balance I think John is right that you should just stick it on Ebay and see who bids.

I'm a big fan of Ceccherini bowlbacks -- there are two in my avatar, and indeed Bruce's avatar is a Ceccherini too. I would think that between us, the three members replying to your questions know as much about this particular maker as anybody in the world. Nevertheless, between us we wouldn't be able to come up with a realistic valuation because there are too few Ceccherinis being traded to establish a market value.

I can say the following:

1. Umberto Ceccherini was one of the top makers of the 1890s. He was endorsed by the pre-eminent concert soloist of the day, Leopoldo Francia, who relocated from Italy to London for a decade from 1895. During this time, it appears that the entire output of Ceccherini's workshop was sold through a single shop in London, Alban Voigt. That's why your label, like everybody else's label, has his name and address printed on it.

2. So, these were very well-regarded instruments in their day, and would have been expensive. Yours is exceptional in that it has a much fancier level of decoration than most, and therefore would have been even more expensive. Level of decoration doesn't necessarily correlate with better instruments, but the fancier ones do tend to be better made as well.

3. Purely on musical grounds, and from the quality of the instrument, Ceccherini mandolins should probably sell for similar money as the Calace, Embergher or Vinaccia models of the same period. Those makers regularly sell for more than 1000 Pounds. Yours won't, unfortunately, as the name of the maker is now much more obscure than those big name makers, and there isn't the collectors' market for them.

3. As John has said, the last two Ceccherinis on Ebay sold for around £200 -- I also know, as a friend of mine bought the other one, at my recommendation. That one was in better condition than yours, but less lavishly decorated. That isn't necessarily typical of prices for this maker, which can be pretty random. I myself bought one ten years ago for £400 and thought at the time it was a great deal, and others have sold for up to £900 in the past year or two, with no apparent reason for the difference in selling price. it simply depends on who is bidding at what time.

4. So, your selling price is almost entirely unpredicatable, which is why Ebay is the best option, where those who want it can find it and bid it up to its current market value (whatever it will be). It is frustrating, but inevitable, that this will be much less than the musical value of the instrument -- if you have any interest at all in mandolins, my recommendation would be to keep and to play it.

5. The condition of the instrument may affect selling price, while the fancier decoration won't necessarily get you more money (especially as I'm not so sure it's in as good taste as Ceccherini normally is). There is some water damage to the soundboard, a piece of missing fretboard inlay and a missing position marker on the bridge. That said, the soundboard looks uncracked and level as far as one can tell from the photos. If you sell online, make sure you have good photos showing the full mandolin from the front, back and in an exact side-on view so that bidders can tell whether the neck is straight and how high the action is.

As I'm personally interested in Ceccherinis, I may well bid myself if the price stays reasonable -- I don't need a mandolin at the moment, but these fancier ones are rare enough to tickle my curiosity.

Martin

[brunello97]

If you choose to put it up on Ebay, please make sure it is available to us Yanks over here in the States as well. (Even though I'm not a Yankee.)

I'd like to bid on it. That is, unless I'd be bidding against Martin and John....

Mick

[Bruce Clausen]

Martin has given an excellent summary of the situation. Thanks, Martin, and good luck with the sale, Sallyanne.

Since we're here, I'd like to ask about a couple of details.

The wider peghead in the OP's photos is not the usual one we see on Ceccherinis, but it's the shape required for use with those fancy machine heads. I see that combination on the very fancy Ceccherini (ser. #2459) shown on the earlymusicalinstruments site. Do we know of other makers in Naples who built to fit those heads? We don't know whether Ceccherini was really an independent builder, or a brand name used for exports built in one of the known workshops, so this might be a point of interest.

The OP's label is in English, with ser. #2182. Mine is in Italian (but with the Voight address), with the number 2002 written along the top margin. I think we also find Italian labels with no serial numbers, and I seem to recall another label style with a different London dealer as agent. These I assume would be later. Do we have any idea how long there continued to be mandolins labeled Ceccherini?

Just a few questions that occurred to me looking at Sallyanne's photos. Thanks for any suggestions.

And by the way:

... and a missing position marker on the bridge.

I've always thought of the dots glued to the table at the ends of the bridge as mere ornament, though I see how they could function as markers on instruments with a movable bridge. In any case, they fall off easily. The OP's bridge lacks the treble-side dot, mine has lost the one from the bass side. But I will pass up this opportunity to secure my missing dot.

[Edit: #2459 is near the bottom of this page:]
http://www.earlymusicalinstruments.com/mandolin.htm

[Tavy]

If you choose to put it up on Ebay, please make sure it is available to us Yanks over here in the States as well. (Even though I'm not a Yankee.)

I'd like to bid on it. That is, unless I'd be bidding against Martin and John....

Well that's at least 3 of us interested: price should shoot up to fifty quid at least

[derbex]

This must be a posh one it come from the 'Atelier' rather than just being 'Fabricante'.

Interesting that it has a serial number -mine doesn't.

Much as I like the look of this one, I won't be bidding. I have enough explaining to do regarding mandolins

[brunello97]

Bruce, I have seen that 'plate' tuner cover (common on Washburns over here) used on some early Vinaccias as well. Some of the fancier Ceccherinis in my files use quite ornately engraved versions.

I assumed that with the UC signature on labels that he must have been a real person. While there are some general design similarities, say to De Meglio, there are enough unique features to make one at least a bit confident that he was a real, if not independent, entity.

There were others in Napoli at the time who seem to have some kind of exclusive sales links to England and or France. If he wasn't a real person, what shop(s) do you suppose these came out of?

I do have an example of a UC label where a (serial?) number has been ink-stamped. Others are written in.

I haven't seen a Ceccherini label with a street address on it, which has puzzled me. Maybe others have one? But it isn't unique (Embergher didn't list an address in Roma, for instance.)

Mick

[Martin Jonas]

For what it's worth, Paul Sparks in his Classical Mandolin book seems to have no doubts that UC was an actual luthier rather than a brand of convenience. I think that must be right -- if it was a premium badge for a massmarket maker (a Lexus-type arrangement), then this can realistically only be De Meglio. As Mick has said, the differences in design to De Meglio are manifold but the clincher for me is that De Meglio also made upper-range mandolins which are a lot fancier than most Cechherinis but have none of the airy elegance of Ceccherini mandolins.

For what it's worth, the only street name address on the labels is that of Alban Voigt in London: it's in one of the small streets that made way for the Barbican Centre in the 1960s.

Martin

[brunello97]

....the clincher for me is that De Meglio also made upper-range mandolins which are a lot fancier than most Cechherinis but have none of the airy elegance of Ceccherini mandolins. Martin

Well said. I am a big fan of the Model 1 De Meglio design. Very well balanced visually with enough curiosities to keep the eye engaged. To keep the car analogy going, maybe akin to a F150 truck or a SAAB 96 V4. But the fancier models just seem to add bling (chrome, pin striping, awkward grille, etc.) in an inelegant manner. The fancy Ceccherinis are in an altogether different league. Some of the nicer classic symmetrical design mandolins out there, I think.

Not that De Meglio was alone in this. I know I'll step on some toes in admitting I feel the same way about CF Martin and Embergher. To my eye, their fancier models don't demonstrate the same simple great design sense as their more 'modest' work does.

But such debate is more Woody Allen ("So you're telling me that the Atlantic is a better ocean than the Pacific?!") than expert.

I hope the OP can get some more photos posted up to enjoy.

Mick

[Bruce Clausen]

Martin and Mick, you're probably right to assume Ceccherini was a real person, and not just a brand name. He signs all the labels, and the Italian-language label refers to a prize awarded at Milan in 1881. This prize probably predates the London connection, and it is about all we hear other than from British sources.

We find no shop address, and no later Italian references that I'm aware of to the maker or the instruments. Almost all the Ceccherini mandolins we've seen have turned up in Britain. So yes, probably the shop's entire output was going to Voigt in London. How large was the operation? We can't even guess, as the instruments aren't dated. So the location and scale of the business are unknown. Yet they are very good mandolins. A minor mystery.

Martin, if you don't recall seeing a Ceccherini label with a different British agent's name on it, I must be mistaken.