The Epiphone that Time Forgot

[nmiller]

I'm a fan of Epiphone from when it was its own company, so when I saw this proto-Epi I jumped on the chance to enlarge the collection. It was built by Anastasios Stathopoulo, or rather his workshop including help from his sons, in 1914. This was a year before Anastasios died and the family business passed to his son Epi who would start the House of Stathopoulo brand name and later Epiphone.

It's a quirky, nifty mandolin, and underneath the dings and the rusty tuners it's actually in fine structural condition. There are traces of shiny glue around the diamond inlays, so I suspect they're replacements, but everything else looks original and untouched. I'm rather impressed with the attention to detail. The neck is a seven-ply lamination (it looks like five at first glance, but you can see two more layers of mahogany on close inspection) and the back strip bends around the tail without breaking the pattern:

The scale is about 13 3/8", and the fingerboard is rather narrow. The mandolin has a big, loud voice; it's one of the better-sounding flat-back mandolins from this era that I've played.

The label gives not just the serial but the style (15A) and the date of manufacture (Dec 1914). Many old labels don't even differentiate between a mandolin, guitar, or horse-drawn carriage, so it's great to have so much info written clearly.

[dhergert]

That is really nice.

I'm pretty much surrounded by Gibson style mandolins, but couldn't blame anyone for "adding" such an instrument to their collection.

Thanks for sharing this in pics and description!

[Mark Gunter]

Very cool, congratulations on scoring this.

[Jim Garber]

AS was very fond of those multi-laminated necks. Almost all his instruments have them. Very cool.

[ollaimh]

one of my mistakes was to sell a stathoupoulo flat back mandolin from the same era. i have never seen another one in person. i have a stathoupoulo bouzouki which is fantastic. i once saw a stathoupoulo flat back octave ,mandolin with a carved top. can't remember the year. shoulda bought it. it was pricey but they never turn up.