"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Inside it just reads "W.T.&B. The Edwin New York Chicago". Thanks for the link that helps a lot. Was trying to find one that had the same butterfly pick guard. It's been in the store since Sept. 1975. Always trying to find some extra time to refurbish it.
Butterfly pickguards were all the rage at different times in the bowlback world. Take a look through these pictures. You are going to find that your mandolin was built by one of the builders that built for the trade, either distributors or retailers and they built them with whatever was specified. By the way, don't spend a whole lot of money refurbishing that and expecting a return. Very few bowlbacks have any real heavy value and they have known name brands.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Wow that's a lot of butterflies. The boss here just liked the wood and inlay on the instrument and thought it would be a fun project. Just like the harp guitar we also have in pieces
Not mandolin related, but I'd like to see a picture of the harp guitar.......
That's what bosses generally say, when they don't have to do the work themselves -- but can assign the "fun project" to some poor schlep who has to figure out how to do it.
I can't bring myself to consider cleaning out my closets, or organizing my hoarder's pile of music-related books, or patching the ceiling in my vestibule where the bathtub drain leakage showed up, as "fun projects." As a matter of fact, I consider "fun project" pretty much an oxymoron.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
That's awesome! In the 70's every music store had stuff like that hanging on the walls! Mostly because it would take too much work to fix it and when you did there was no market for it. Then along came eBay, and the words "project guitar" were born and stuff like that found a home with someone who could appreciate it. One year I think I did nothing except list projects from the backroom on eBay. 9 times out of 10 the stuff went for more than I could have ever imagined it would have. Example: pair of 50's Epiphone "carousel" knobs $300 bucks! Yep, two plastic knobs.....but wait, there's more.........
There was a restaurant in Spokane Washington that had no less than 300 Vintage Gibson acoustics screwed to the ceiling. Through the roof of that place was a 59 Caddilac. It did close and was turned into a Chinese take out. Not sure what happened to all those guitars. Most were from the pre teens into the 50s.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Here is the page it appears in my 1901 William Tonk & Brother catalog. Edwin was evidently the top of their mandolin line. The OP's model is called the Deep Italian Model No. 2293. You can see the specs. $57.50—that was a lot of money back then. According to the inflation calculator it would be today's equivalent of $1,734.43.
There were two higher-priced and fancier models 2294 priced at $87.00 and 2295, the top of the line, priced at $112.50 with fluted (in the catalog called "corrugated") ribs.
---->Whoops! It looks like I duplicated my post while editing.
Here's one from my files that appears in the catalog one step lower than the OP's.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Scrounging around older music stores during the 1980s I figured most of what people looked for were found and gone so I asked if they had any old strings and often came up with a pile. The best bet were uke strings since, believe it or not, no one wanted to play uke back then, except me and a couple of friends. You can see some on this vintage thread on vintage string packages.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
How neat! Thanks for sharing the pages, my mind can rest at ease. Guess not many around anymore. I though for sure a matching image would show up in a web search.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
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