I've never seen a bowl back like this!

[milli857]

This thing is really funky and cool! I love the matching pickguard and soundhole.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/13450647585...mis&media=COPY

[Mike Buesseler]

They certainly scrimped on the bowl itself, though. “Nobody sees the back anyway.”

[brunello97]

For posteriority.

Vorhees bowlback mandolin.

I'm urging folks who discover these muy coolioso mandolin finds to take the extra step and post a photo or two.

And if there is a label....to identify the maker in your post.

The ebay listings do have a finite lifespan.

That way we'll have images to outlast the ebay posting length and we'll have a searchable name when we are hunting for information when and if another shows up somewhere.

Mick

[Jim Garber]

From Mugwumps.com: Voorhees, Walter J., Saginaw, MI 1904

It definitely looked Waldo-ic to me: Waldo Manufacturing Co., Saginaw, MI 1891-1903+

Attached here is Walter Vorrhees' patent from 1904.

And this is the same mandolin still for sale for an outrageous price ($7500) and discussed in this thread from over two years ago: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...ry-interesting

[Richard500]

As one says in the espionage world, you’ve broken the code. Probably. The appearance of the bowl relates to the patent, Waldo is a known nickname for Walter, so Voorhees and Waldo amount to the same person. One interesting bit from the several old threads here is that the company got a mass order of 1000, and vanished soon after. So did these contracted mandolins have Waldo-ish features, how were they labeled, were they never delivered, and where are they now?
An interesting design, creating bilateral symmetry that way, and getting enough port opening from the one side. Unfortunately for the current owner, extreme rarity doesn’t automatically translate to high value.

[Sue Rieter]

The Blueberry of the antique bowlback genre

Pretty cool, but fairly well over the top.

[brunello97]

My lament, Jim. No photos posted in that thread, either.

If Richard is correct and “Walter” is “Waldo” that would indeed be something.

Here’s a link to a Waldo site with info and a patent for the iconic Waldo.
Which Jim has like posted somewhere but I’ll include here.

W Vorhees name is not on this patent.

Though I couldn’t find anything on the Walter/Waldo link in a brief search.

It is tempting.

Ex employee and maybe designer patenting a version of what he worked on.
Maybe even designed while the owners took patent credit for.
That’s pure speculation.

It’s a wonderful looking mandolin just the same.

Mick

[NickR]

Jim, maybe I should have posted it in the "mandolins that will get no bids" thread! Two years on and the price has finally been lowered but it is still too high! Mick, you have got me trained up now!

[Martin Jonas]

Very cool instrument, but clearly too expensive.

That patent is cool, too. What he seems to claim as his invention is the smooth outer covering of the bowl, which if I understand the stilted language correctly is created by making a conventional bowl out of individual wooden staves and then placing a wet rawhide cover on the outside, fixed to the edge of the soundboard, so that it tightens like a drumhead as and when it dries out, compressing the bowl. He claims that improves tonal quality, which I very much doubt as the bowl is acoustically inactive in bowlback. Weird, anyway.

Martin

[brunello97]

The patent language implies that the thin rawhide cover is 'cemented' in place.

The bowl is quite blotchy and the invidivual staves are difficult to make out.

Do we assume this mandolin had the rawhide cover at one point at it was removed.

I didn't see any mention as to whether the bowl / shell was finished before the skin was applied.

Or is that the rawhide cover, very thin and translucent, carefully cut around the skirt contours?

Mick

[Martin Jonas]

The patent language implies that the thin rawhide cover is 'cemented' in place.

The bowl is quite blotchy and the invidivual staves are difficult to make out.

Do we assume this mandolin had the rawhide cover at one point at it was removed.

I didn't see any mention as to whether the bowl / shell was finished before the skin was applied.

Or is that the rawhide cover, very thin and translucent, carefully cut around the skirt contours?

My impression from the photo was the latter -- the smooth blotchy outer surface is the very thin and translucent rawhide cover. I suspect it would have been cemented between the bowl and the skirt, so no careful cutting required.

Martin

[brunello97]

My impression from the photo was the latter -- the smooth blotchy outer surface is the very thin and translucent rawhide cover. I suspect it would have been cemented between the bowl and the skirt, so no careful cutting required.

Martin

That makes sense, Martin.

A very thin almost parchment layer of skin.

Mick