Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
More data points before I forget them:
1901 model 1A, 11066
1894 model 1A, 2459
1897 model 1A, 6791
Thanks, John!
Slowly, slowly creeping towards 1% of the entrie DeMeglio output.
The 1894 is one of the earlies DeMeglio's in the "archive". '93 is the earliest year I have an example of.
The numbers suggest they were putting out in the neighborhood of 1K+ mandolins a year in the mid '90s.
Anyway you put it, that is a lot of mandolins.
Interesting to comp with the numbers from Gibson (albeit, a couple decades later) that Joe Spann is providing in another thread:
E.g. 1925 mandolin production: 1200 total.
A 300 units
A-Jr. 240 units
A-2z 200 units
A-4 180 units
F-2 40 units
F-4 240 units
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Yep, 1K a year is some serious production. I suspect Gibson were at it for more years, but it's interesting how close these guys were in terms of numbers.
I also appreciate the fact that they could maintain very high quality standards at this level of production. We've all seen photos of the Gibson works in Kalamazoo from this period. They were making a lot of stuff but had a lot of space....and a dedicated railroad spur to drop materials off.
I've often wondered about the workshops of some of our favorite Neapolitan makers. Napoli is a pretty dense city. There are some old photos around of course which look like shops set up in pretty small spaces. There are, of course, some contemporary videos from Calace or La Bottega, but I don't think these folks are putting out 1K mandolins a year.
But in the 1890s Calace and Vinaccia were pretty prolific. I wonder what their production amounted to in this period?
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Thank you, Ntone!
An interesting addition to the ongoing DeMeglio archive.
#9451 is now the earliest SN for 1900 that we have, and moves the marker back 50 mandolins.
Current recorded range for 1900 is from #9451 to 10006. 550+ mandolins.
Ahh....just found your other post where you describe this as having been your mother's and aunt's before.
Is your aunt of an age where she might have bought it new in Greece?
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Very much so....DeMeglio was active making mandolins from ~1893 into the early '20s.
That's a pretty long stretch. A lot of their mandolins wound up being sold in England and we also see labels in French suggesting sales there as well.
Can you post a photo of the label, if you can get a good shot?
Not likely to be in Greek but will be interesting to see nonetheless.
Thanks,
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Great photo, Ntone! Thank you.
This is a familiar DeMeglio label from this time period. Check out the disclaimer in French at the bottom warning to look out for faux DeMeglios. I was crossing my fingers that this might be in Greek.
Notice the label now shows the Rettifilo, 248 address for DeMeglio. The Rettifilo is another name for Corso Umberto I, a major artery in old Naples.
The label makes note of this address "palazzo proprio" which could be taken to mean in their own building. Small "p" on palazzo.
Here is a current shot the address, which could certainly be described as a palazzo.
Interesting to see that there might be a cannabis shop where DeMeglio once made and sold mandolins. Or maybe that was next door....
Hopefully, our friend Victor (well come to think of it, either of our friends named Victor) might catch this conversation and weigh in. Victor the K should have some insight into the history of Napoli-Athens mandolin commerce.
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Thank you Mick!
I really like this mandolin.
I have been playing guitar for a long time and am really enjoying venturing into the mandolin.
It seems that this one is of pretty good quality. It sets up very nicely, great action and neck set.
Hi all, I'm new to the group. I have a mandolin dated 1902, serial number is 11658, Mod. 1.
Not sure how to upload an image though.
I've tried opening the video link but I don't want to sign up to video
John, if you select the "Go Advanced" option in the lower right of your "reply" options you will be led to a more "advanced" reply window in which you can scroll down to see Additional Options / Attachments / and a "Manage attachments" button. That should open for you a dialog box wherein you can select and upload an attachment.
Thanks for pitching in. We look forward to seeing yours.
DeMeglio SN 11658 is a helpful one for our list. It is now the earliest one we have recorded for 1902 resetting that year's recorded production by almost 100 mandolins.
The DeMeglio shop was busy.
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Very nearly 9 years since I started this thread, and still going strong! I must try and get back here more often too
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Here are a couple of photos of the mandolin and the label.
So happy to see this thread is still active!
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