Lyon & Healy style 5283 Model A) at Skinner’s auctions

[Tim Logan]

For those who love Lyon & Healys, there are two up for bid at Skinner auctions in Boston - see Skinner. Com

[mrmando]

Also a Giacomel, a vintage Martin, and a Bacon banjo mandolin!
https://www.skinnerinc.com/search?s=mandolin

The L&H/Washburns both reportedly have 5-digit serial numbers (!!?) and Skinner's estimated date for them is 1930. One of them looks pretty dark and may be one of the rare chocolate brown instruments.

[seankeegan]

From the Skinner's site:

Lyon & Healy Washburn Style 5283 Mandolin, c. 1930, serial no. 14500, with original case.

Provenance: Mary Zelnick-Roitman.

"N.B. In 1961, Mary Zelnick recorded Vivaldi's Concerto in G Major for Two Mandolins, Strings, and Organ, with Sol Goichberg, Max Goberman, and the New York Sinfonietta."

So this mandolin featured on the Kramer vs. Kramer soundtrack?

https://www.allmusic.com/album/baroq...r-mw0000267036

[mrmando]

From the Skinner's site:
So this mandolin featured on the Kramer vs. Kramer soundtrack?

Holy cow. One of them might well have, yes. I'm told Goichberg was very keen on the L&H sound and his quartet was all L&H instruments. So he and Zelnicki might well have played L&H mandolins on that recording.

(One other mandolinist that I know of, Peter Press, recorded the Vivaldi concerti on a Lyon & Healy.)

If you have a New York Times subscription you can read more about Goichberg's Mando-Art Quartet here: https://www.nytimes.com/1961/10/23/a...tet-heard.html

(The piece is from 1961, the same year that Goichberg and Zelnicki recorded the Vivaldi double concerto.)

[Tim Logan]

What does N.B. mean? Thanks.

[mrmando]

What does N.B. mean? Thanks.

Nota bene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nota_bene

[Tim Logan]

Here is a description I got from Skinner for #14500:
“ In good, playing condition. The initials FG inscribed into the top. Minor rib cracks at bass shoulder and bass side of lower bout. Slight rib bulge/open seams at lower bout. Honest play wear.”
Guess I won’t bid on that one. Makes me really appreciate the beautiful condition of the Model A I already own.

[mrmando]

“ In good, playing condition. The initials FG inscribed into the top. Minor rib cracks at bass shoulder and bass side of lower bout. Slight rib bulge/open seams at lower bout. Honest play wear.”

Given that, I'd be surprised if it meets the estimated $2–3K.

The bridges on these instruments don't look right ... they appear to be a lighter color than ebony. I don't know if that means they are not original; if the 1930 date is correct I wouldn't know who was setting these instruments up in what workshop, or what specs and standards were in place.

[mrmando]

At least one of Mary Zelnick's mandolins has ended up at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix:

[Jim Garber]

Holy cow. One of them might well have, yes. I'm told Goichberg was very keen on the L&H sound and his quartet was all L&H instruments. So he and Zelnicki might well have played L&H mandolins on that recording.

(One other mandolinist that I know of, Peter Press, recorded the Vivaldi concerti on a Lyon & Healy.)

If you have a New York Times subscription you can read more about Goichberg's Mando-Art Quartet here: https://www.nytimes.com/1961/10/23/a...tet-heard.html

(The piece is from 1961, the same year that Goichberg and Zelnicki recorded the Vivaldi double concerto.)

I actually must have missed this thread, for some reason. Goichberg was the concertmaster of the NY Mandolin Orchestra and I believe that the Sinfonietta was a group that eventually was merged into NYMO. As I have mentioned before, when I joined NYMO there were quite a few L&H mandolins and I was told by one of the older members that they were recommended to all the players for uniformity of the sound of the orchestra.

Here's that little mention of the Mando-Art Quartet in the NY Times. Somewhere I have a CD of a recording made by the Quartet that was sent to me. IIRC it was either a home or rehearsal recording.

[mrmando]

Hm, the copy editor must have been on a lunch break.

I never met Albert Jacobson but I know his son Alan. That's my connection to the MandoArt Quartet.