A link to the auction would help, smart guy, since the more photos we have the better chance we have of making an ID.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy • Wood • Thormahlen • Andersen • Bacorn • Yanuziello • Fender • National • Gibson • Franke • Fuchs • Aceto • Three Hungry Pit Bulls
One likely choice is "Santacilla," although there are probably some other vintage brands beginning with Sa. 'Tis a Chicago factory-made mandolin that could have ended up with any of half a dozen different brand names depending on which batch it was in.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy • Wood • Thormahlen • Andersen • Bacorn • Yanuziello • Fender • National • Gibson • Franke • Fuchs • Aceto • Three Hungry Pit Bulls
Link.
Looks pretty US-generic to me; others with more expertise will undoubtedly provide more insight
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Sammo?
Doesn't look like a fragment from either of the two label examples I have, though.
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
The builder was probably Regal or Harmony, both built that style. The year built was well before mid-century, 20's to 30's and it was built in Chicago. The price with shipping right now is just under $50.00. The price right now is about what the max worth is.
The bridge has been replaced, probably a long time ago. This was obviously built "for the trade" to be labelled by a distributor, retailer, or music teacher. Samuel Osborne generally had higher quality mandolins with his Sammo brand name on them although he could have sold a budget model like this I guess. He farmed everything out and as much as everyone with a Sammo wants to think that the Larson's built all those mandolins, they did not. He bought from everybody.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
This is just wild conjecture on my part, but I'm going to say it's somebody's home-made mandolin. Some of the details don't look like anything a professional shop would do.
For example, the shape of the peg head between the nut and the tuners, and even the portion at the first two tuner posts. One of the photos shows this area pretty clearly, and you can see that it's horribly uneven/nonsymmetrical between the two sides, with a very amateurish tapering to it. I also see that the tuner plates have had their corners clipped unevenly so they won't stick out past the edge of the peg head. These may or may not be original, though. The shape of the oval hole is very uneven and lumpy too. It looks like someone built this mandolin in their garage, using commercially available parts like tuners, tailpiece, bridge, etc.
What kind of wood is that top?
It's shop built, these were cheap and I believe this one was probably refinished at one time. It could have had a chip out of it that somebody tried fix by sanding it down. Lot's of company's cut down their tuners like that. These weren't real pretty either way. Here's a set on eBay right now. Better than these but not perfect. The tuners could have also been replaced over the years. Either way it's a common mandolin.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
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
This "smart guy" is a woman.
Bookmarks