Mandolet- 20s or 30s

[NickR]

This is for sale in the UK but is US made. Those tuners are new to my eyes. The body looks familiar- reminds me of a Mandolute. Edit: Having read the blurb on the auction, I believe this is the same instrument from that other thread.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-U...AAAOSw8ENdIj6p

I have just found this thread:https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...-PLEASE-Thanks

[NickR]

In fact there is a set of identical tuners on ebay and they are listed as Vega/Weymann which lends more to the suggestion this instrument was made by Weymann. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Veg...gAAOSwEWZdDlJv

[nmiller]

Not a Weymann. It could be a Schmidt creation, or it could have come from any of the bazillion small workshops between Philly, NYC and Boston. The tuners don't tell you much since there were a handful of machine shops supplying most of the instrument builders.

[NickR]

I have to admit that the body shape, I know I have seen before- and it is probably not a Weymann style. I don't think it is OS but it is distinctive so I am surprised I have not remembered. However, as you point out, it could have been made by any number of workshops.

[MikeEdgerton]

I've seen a very similar label. I think the company that built it might have been in Missouri. let me see if I can find the thread.

[MikeEdgerton]

Here it is. Might be the same instrument.

I didn't see Nick's link in the first post. It looks like someone added a pickup. Between the label info and Jim Garber's link to the patent I'd say it was made in Missouri and the pictures aren't clear enough for me to tell if this is the same instrument.

Looking hard at what is there I don't see that back crack that was in the previous thread. It appears they made at least two.

[NickR]

It would be interesting to see if it was made in Missouri. It finally came to me that the body shape is typical of mandolins from that time that were made in central Europe. I wonder if it was made in Carlsbad by OS but was completed with American hardware in New Jersey? Of course, as so many makers were German or ethnic Germans from Bohemia, it may well have been made to that design by a workshop founded by someone from that part of the world- or someone who just copied such a mandolin style. I have no idea if the opening price is good on this rare instrument. I suppose it is a curio as much as anything else.

[MikeEdgerton]

Carlstadt is in NJ, there is no Carlsbad in this state. At the time that was built I believe all of OS's manufacturing operation was in Jersey City but I could be wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if they were manufactured in Missouri.

The guy that got the patent has a listing in the Mugwumps Encyclopedia I never looked for him by name.

Isbell, Harry J. St. Louis MO circa 1894

[NickR]

Carlsbad is in Bohemia- it is now called Karlovy Vary and Oscar Schmidt had a manufacturing base there as well as at Jersey City, and he died while visiting the Carlsbad factory.

[MikeEdgerton]

Carlsbad is in Bohemia- it is now called Karlovy Vary and Oscar Schmidt had a manufacturing base there as well as at Jersey City, and he died while visiting the Carlsbad factory.

I'm sure it was made in the US.

[NickR]

It may well be and that is most likely. I speculated, that it might have been made in Bohemia or made in the USA by either folk that had come from there, or copied that style of instrument. There was a very large import business for instruments from central Europe- or components, at that time but the USA really does seem most probable. It would be good to fix a date for it- I suggested 20s or 30s in my post but it may well be earlier. I think that tuner style may help fix the period- but I do not know when that style was made but it could well be the very early 20th century.