Mandolin Advertisments from the UK 1914

[Dave Boneham]

These are from Philip Bone's book The Guitar and Mandolin published in England in 1914. The book was a biography of various composers and at the end there were many ads. These were the ones with the best graphics.

I particarly like the Gibson ad and its appeal to English customers by using Darwin and evolution.

[F-2 Dave]

The one on the left in the Windsor ad looks like a three point lump scroll. I kinda like it.

[Henry Girvan]

Hello,

It may be of some interest to know that both "Clifford Essex" and "John Alvey Turner" will have stalls at the British BMG Federation Rally which will be in the Central Foundation Boy's School in London from the 2nd to 4th March 2012.

[pfox14]

I just love old advertisements. Great little collection of UK ads. Here are a few American ads from the early 20th century:

From The Cadenza music magazine, 2 1900 ads - 1 Martin and one for Regal


2 ads from 1911 showing the Dyer harp mandolin and the Stahl brands made by the Larson Brothers



Here are a couple of very early Gibson mando ads



From 1905, Fred Gretsch mando ad

[Jim Garber]

These are from Philip Bone's book The Guitar and Mandolin published in England in 1914. The book was a biography of various composers and at the end there were many ads. These were the ones with the best graphics.

I particarly like the Gibson ad and its appeal to English customers by using Darwin and evolution.

Dave: I wish you posted larger ads so we can read what they say. I have the 1972 version of Bone's book and there are no ads it. I am esp interested in the John Alvey Turner with that Roman-looking mandolin.

[Dave Boneham]

Jim,

Good point. I was thinking the same thing after Fox posted his ads which were far better pixelized. I've got the scans at high resolution at home. I compressed them thinking they might not upload but I'll try at their original size once I'm back home. The Gibson ad which is, in my opinion, rather clever, is at a loss at the size I posted.

Dave B.

[Jim Garber]

I usually can get them to upload at around 150k each and that makes them readable. If they are converted to B&W then they can even be smaller in file size.

[pfox14]

I use only 72dpi images but a bit larger in size so they will be readable. Usually I take screen shots of the original .pdf docs and save them as jpegs, in case that helps.

[Jim Garber]

At one point there was a lower limit as to the file size but Scott has increased it over the years.

[mandobassman]

I love the Gibson Artist ad from pfox14's ads. The straight-through tuning pegs are awesome. Wish they made them that way now. Smaller, individual tuners, like on a banjo, would be great.
The offset dot on the 20th fret is interesting, too.

[world_of_mandolins]

Dear all, my first posting and I am not a native english speaker therefore sorry for everything which is not correct written.

If you like advertisments and old catalogues, I have some for you, all of them european! I took a page from an old Edmund Paulus catalogue from about 1910 (Markneukirchen, Germany), this is one you can read all because it was was made for the South American and the USA market.

There has been a discussion about alumnium back mandolins here (very interesting), I have to tell you that they have been made in Europe, too. Attach also a picture of mandolin No 26 which I have in my collection. Hope you like it!

@ Jim Garber: This is one of two alumnium flatback mandolins I have, all others are bowlback!

Let me here what you think!

Best wishes!

[Dave Boneham]

Okay, I'm uploading my scans without any compressing.

Dave B.

[pfox14]

Very cool old aluminum-backed mando. Love the old Euro catalog page.

[world_of_mandolins]

If you want to get more so let me know which is your special interest, i will find something!

BTW: still loking for some pics of a Hutchins alu mando (Just have a black colored one)

[Dobe]

The one on the left in the Windsor ad looks like a three point lump scroll. I kinda like it.

Probably one of the first Gibson 'copies' !

Welcome to the Cafe Christian, you're off to a great start. 2 awsome posts out of 2

[Jim Garber]

Okay, I'm uploading my scans without any compressing.

Thanks, Dave for the better scans. FYI: there was a 2007 thread on the lump scroll Windsor mandolins with actual pictures of one.

[Yandy]

Interesting. It hadn't occurred to me that there was a Gibson dealer network back then, with 'official' imports rather than the odd instrument that managed to make its way over here (the UK).

Do the infamous Gibson records give any clues as to how many and which instruments were exported for first sale in the UK? And through whom.

Mine certainly appears to have a lot of right-hand drive, if that's any indication.

[Martin Jonas]

We've had a brief discussion on those adverts before in this thread, but it's nice to see them again -- more lively discussion this time around than previously. The bowlback in the John Alvey Turner advert is presumably an Embergher 5bis, and is listed at 9 Pounds and 9 Shillings. At the time, the Pound was worth about $5, so this is the equivalent of a bit under $50 at 1914 values. What was Gibson's price for their top model, the F4, in 1914? More than that, or not?

I like the Ceccherini advert, too -- with its sparse elegancy it mirrors the design of the labels and the mandolins themselves, in stark contrast to the more garish and overcrowded adverts, labels and mandolins of his competitors (including, dare I say, the Gibson advert).

Martin

[brunello97]

It is an interesting chain of ads and conversation, giving some indication of how a new product (Gibson, for instance) sought to position itself in an already established (and probably fairly stodgy) marketplace. "Tradition" v "Evolution". How often do we continue to see those two juxtaposed?

Seeing the ad for the range of, uh, alumina-based metals provoked me to track this discussion down.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

And this estimable quote:

"The metal was named by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy (who, you may recall, “abominated gravy, and lived in the odium of having discovered sodium”.) While I have never wanted to sound like a Brit, I can certainly agree with Sir Humphry in regards to gravy. Yuk.

Mick

[Anglocelt]

Thanks Dave for uploading that image of the Windsor Pyxe 'Gibson homage' mandolin.

I have one of those pictured in the ad and a thing of wonder it is too. I had thought it was part of an attempt to expand Windsor's product range in a shrinking banjo market in the 1930s (they were the UK's biggest banjo maker by far and probably the biggest banjo maker outside the USA - I wish there were some decent stats) but I see the ad dates from 1914.

I used to live in Birmingham where the Windsor banjos were made and were commonly found for sale second-hand but I never saw a Windsor mandolin for sale, suggesting they were a short-term proposition. The Windsor banjo-mandolins were much more common, and often very well made, suggesting they stuck to what they knew best in later years.

Kevin

[Anglocelt]

I dug out some adverts from old copies of 'Dallas' Musical Monthly', published in London in 1914 & 1915 by the Instrument maker J E Dallas showing flatback mandolins which Dallas claims to have originated and perfected in various boastful ads.

I particularly like the ad showing the 'sextet' of the mandolin family products made by Dallas in the Francia brand range. I have one of the 'mandolo' models shown, effectively an octave mandola which I must dig out and restring.

Also, take a look at the ad where they claim their Francia is "the original from which all other English flat back mandolins and the recent improvements in America have been copied". What can they mean?

Kevin

[Jim Garber]

I assume that Francia was Leopoldo Francia who was a well-known composer and player of the mandolin back in that day.

[Anglocelt]

Yes Jim,

Leopoldo Francia seems to have been on the Dallas payroll endorsing their mandolins, arranging mandolin pieces they published, teaching and giving recitals.

Here are some higher res versions of the ads I posted earlier, not perfect as the originals are not all sharp.

Kevin

[pfox14]

Never heard of the Dallas brand. Can't read all names of their instruments for the mandolin orchestra - could you tell me what they are from L to R?

[brunello97]

Never heard of the Dallas brand. Can't read all names of their instruments for the mandolin orchestra - could you tell me what they are from L to R?

I've got some images of Dallas mandolins on my HD at home which I can put up this evening. Maybe Jim or someone else has access to those quicker. Meant to do it last night but forgot.

Mick