Hi,
This mandolin was my great-grandfather's. A friend put me in touch with a luthier in Naples who on the basis of these photos told me it was Sicilian and very confidently stated that the Vincenzo Berti company of the label applied inside the body was not the maker. He offered no other information.
Later on I wrote back asking why someone would have falsely applied a label. By that time I had found a second label, very difficult to see and photograph (I have tried), inside the body just below where the neck attaches. It looks old. I seem to be able to make out a spidery signature, and there are very clearly the numbers 1737 (I assume referring to the year). He answered that there are a lot of old mandolins in circulation with false labels to make them appear more valuable than they really are. He said that it was not produced in the era suggested by the second label, but he did not say when. I did not question him further because he did not seem inclined to be very forthcoming.
Dad was born in 1935. If we say a generation is 25 years and my great-grandfather acquired the instrument when he was 20 years old, that would have been 1905. So I can say that this mandolin is probably at least 117 years old. It has been passed down in my family since then. I cannot say with absolute certainty of course, but I would say it is highly unlikely that anybody in my family would have stuck a false label in it.
So what I am looking for is any information which would help me to establish the maker, when it was made, and a ball park estimate of its possible value.
Many thanks.
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