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Thread: Interesting bowlback on ebay

  1. #1

    Default Interesting bowlback on ebay

    An attractive mandolin.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Beautiful-8...IAAOSw3dRehKwm

    Dealer sticker over the original one. Can one tell the maker? Both addresses visible on original sticker appear to be from Catania (checked via Google maps).

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  3. #2
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Hi, found the label on Google:

    Made by Stefano Caponnetto
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  5. #3

    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    This maker used the NON PLUS ULTRA slogan. However, he may have gone out of business and somebody else grabbed it. My guess is that it is post war but the tuners look like 1930s German items- but left over from the wartime dislocation.

    https://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...tube-458075793

    Edit- I should have refreshed the page as it has been found- Stefano Caponnetto above!

  6. #4
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Nice catch, Victor... and good call, Cando. I have SC listed under the Via Petriera address in my files which was obscured by the other label.

    Caponetto had a sense of brio in his work. Some other examples and a different label.
    These two are flat backed.

    Mick
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  8. #5

    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Very pretty mandolin, but I would get confused on that fingerboard.

  9. #6
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    A display piece if I've ever seen one! Interesting that it seems to be post-WWII; seems quite ornate for that period...?
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  10. #7

    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Thanks Cando, spot on!

  11. #8
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Mando View Post
    Very pretty mandolin, but I would get confused on that fingerboard.
    I've put in a few bids on it.
    Don't plan to go very deep with it but I've always enjoyed the exuberance of Catanese mandolins. I quite like the looks of this. SC seems to have pulled off the very sexy Embergherian recurve where the bowl meets the neck...and with what appears to be a slightly deeper bowl cross section--but that could just be the photo angle.
    Doesn't appear to have copied the Roman cross sloped neck and bridge.
    Or the .675" nut width.....

    Mick
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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Pearl work seems a bit amateurish to my eyes, even cartoony. Whoever did it was not the Consalvi of Catania.

    I guess it fits in with the guitars by that shop at the Fetish Guitar site. I have in my files jpegs of a mandolin that goes very well with this guitar.

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    It might be a decent player though. The seller is about 1 hour from my house and I would venture a trip if these were not Covid-19 days. Oh well...

    Here's another Caponnetto bowlback with a less encrusted fretboard.
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  14. #10

    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    it says melon wood back. i do not think that is mellon wood(whatever that is) looks like rosewood. but it is way to cheesy for me, but i have never played a bowl back for very long. i toyed with a few but i sold them on.

  15. #11
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Quote Originally Posted by ollaimh View Post
    it says melon wood back. i do not think that is mellon wood(whatever that is) looks like rosewood. but it is way to cheesy for me, but i have never played a bowl back for very long. i toyed with a few but i sold them on.
    I thought the seller meant is was a melon-shaped back. Looks like rosewood to me.

    For historical purposes, here are some photos.
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  17. #12
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    ..... Whoever did it was not the Consalvi of Catania.
    .
    Caponetto didn't seem to leave much out. Or resist the temptation to put something in.
    Anyone can make a "tasteful" mandolin with a bottle opener headstock, a goofball looking dragon and a clumsy trompe l'oeil scroll....

    Jim, that bound top, cutaway two point guitar with rose window soundhole rosette is simply amazing.
    If only Porter Waggoner or some of the Nudie-suited C+W guys had been hip to Caponetto.

    We got a new CNC controlled embroidery machine in the shop back in the winter. Once the Quentin Quarantino finally ends I'm going to dive in.

    Mick
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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Quote Originally Posted by brunello97 View Post
    Jim, that bound top, cutaway two point guitar with rose window soundhole rosette is simply amazing.
    If only Porter Waggoner or some of the Nudie-suited C+W guys had been hip to Caponetto.

    We got a new CNC controlled embroidery machine in the shop back in the winter. Once the Quentin Quarantino finally ends I'm going to dive in.
    Are you going to make Catania style nudie suits for all of us. I will put my order in for sure.
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    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    Are you going to make Catania style nudie suits for all of us. I will put my order in for sure.
    Ha! I can only imagine what a Jim Garber Nudie Suit would look like. I took my first sewing intro workshop, too, right before Il Quarantino set in.
    I'm on this. Beats getting a tattoo.....

    Mick
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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Quote Originally Posted by brunello97 View Post
    Ha! I can only imagine what a Jim Garber Nudie Suit would look like. I took my first sewing intro workshop, too, right before Il Quarantino set in.
    I'm on this. Beats getting a tattoo.....

    Mick
    I will send you my size info and other necessities. I often wear my nudie suit in the shower, but that is an entirely different story.
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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Here's another refreshingly simple piccolo mandolin by Stefano Caponnetto that I recently acquired. (I do have a fondness for piccolo mandolins--not those German pocket mandolins but true piccolos with the shorter scales). I posted here about this recent one on this thread: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/threads/162465-New-Piccolo-and-My-Piccolo-Trio


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  24. #17
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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Nice find - looks in good condition.

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    Default Re: Interesting bowlback on ebay

    Thats very KOOL!

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