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Bill, good news and bad news. I woke to find real live tracking- the parcel had been unearthed and it was due to be delivered this morning- which it was. The mandolin is very interesting and quite a...

Mick, here is the Beare & Son, Toronto catalogue from 1936/37. You can see that old cat and his fiddle is prominent and he is still the company's mascot. I saw a late 30s Harmony guitar with that...

Bill, the Michigan brand sales started in the early 30s- I have one- a Harmony Valencia date-stamped 1934. During that decade they imported Gibson guitars- many being the Cromwell brand but the...

Bill, I had reckoned that your mandolin would escape the gravitational pull of the Coventry/Parcel Force/Border Farce Hub- and it is now in Portugal. Good luck with your local bureaucracy! It looks...

My mandolin was headed for Parcelforce, Coventry and this is the only tracking:

"Parcelforce Worldwide have collected your parcel and it will start its journey to our delivery depot". And this...

Mick, you have won the prize for the cryptic label challenge!

213019

Italian I would imagine from the early 20th century.

Edit: I now see Richard500 has already made the same suggestion.

I don't think the comment mentioning Catania after WW2 becoming a major production centre for mandolins is suggesting your mandolin was made after the war. I would maintain early 1900s for the...

I would think the separate headstock and the tuners suggest this mandolin is from the 1920s.

As you have revived the thread, I will add my commentary after four plus years. My Feeling is my favourite to play and it always gets great comments from others when I go to a bluegrass picking...

Ideally, you need to post more photos showing all aspects of the mandolin. From what I can see, judging by the tuners and tailpiece it is American made from around the early 1900s. The bowl is made...

This is a funny old instrument with the f holes in the side. It probably has a bent neck as well as the top coming away.
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If you get it restrung- or do it yourself, which is not fun (even for those of use who have done it many times!) make sure as mentioned early on to use ultra light strings- 09-32 thousandths of an...

There were 200 USAAF airfields in the UK in WW2 and many were in Lincolnshire, so I would reckon your mandolin was brought over by someone in the military at that time. I have a 1942 made Harmony...

This is a fantastic analysis of a recently discovered L-5 which turned out to be the oldest known example! It was signed on February 28th 1923 and was in remarkable shape- just a 1940s tailpiece and...

That's amazing- a wonderful instrument and case. Here's one that appears to be exactly the same: http://www.mandolinarchive.com/gibson/serial/62722

The one who found it and was going to chuck it...

The Kluson tuners are of a type made from 1956 to 1958, so during that period or a year or so later would be an educated suggestion for its age.

Here is the site that details these tuners:
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This Windsor Whirle tenor guitar my luthier rebuilt for me was made in Czechoslovakia in 1927. It has really wide grain as can be seen. This instrument had been modified extensively and was crushed...

I had noticed the code looked similar but I did not click through them both. This is the $900 example which has a Kay bridge which adds to its value somewhat:
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It made $774. It has a good case but the guard is probably deteriorating but the clamp is there. As an A-Jr it has the cloud which does not command the price that the sliding tailpiece cover demands....

I saw this in an auction for a fairly portly Harmony made Supertone archtop mandolin from the 1930s. Not a booklet but an interesting item. Have you got your Strad-O-Line you bought playing okay?
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We get what reads like an AI puff piece. The mandolin is over- priced except it has a nice 1930s case that is meant for a Kay Venetian judging by its shape but it is still too pricey.
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It is more likely to be a German made instrument from the 30s or 40s.

Yes, I have posted up the eBay auction and it is a Regal and I have posted up a Regal made Lark guitar which also has the Regal decal on it. Kay never made anything remotely in this shape- the...

Much of the metalware on American instruments was made in Germany- this is even more true of European made instruments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It may be that the "clam shell"...