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Thanks, Martin!

Great to hear from you as always.
Yes, that trio of songs are favorites of mine as well.

From my rough take: Cu ti lu dissi means something along the lines of "Who told you...

Eoin....Procida is actually an island off the coast of Napoli...so to sort this out you'll want someone familiar with the Neapolitan lingua.

Such a wonderful tune, Simon. I learned this actually...

Muy bueno, Robert.

I'm not a classical fellow, but this is too close to comfortably
miss.

We're down here cringing in TX for the summer but will be back in Michigandia in the Fall.

I look...

Oh, yeah Pietro Dodici....

That is a muy delightfuloso mandolin.

The neck looks un po' wonky but that's a bonafide piece of American mandolin history.

Your amigo has to fill in a little bit...

Fair play to you, Greg, that's a lovely instrument.

And moreso since it belonged to your abuelo.

The use of the softer fretboard materials on these obviousl led to more erosion of the...

Channeling Jerome Lester Horowitz (aka Curly Howard): Hysterical porpoises.

Mick

Thanks, Mike.

The one on Reverb doesn't have the mahogany back I associated with A-40s.

(That might be an erroneous assumption...)

Are you thinking its a flat back and that's maybe maple (or...

I haven't taken in a stray in mezzo alla strada Italian bowl for some TLC in some time now.

Y'all are making me feel the itch. ;)

Mick

This one on reverb looks very nice.

A bit of a nice surprise to me.

One would have thought Monkey Ward would be marketing a KM-21 or at most a A-40.

Begs the question about what were the...

I know that's right, Simon! And I know Sheri agrees. This is dance music, first and foremost.
And as any Texan knows, if you can't dance...well, you're a chump.

My brother and cognata were over...

That's what I know, Sher.

And then there are novice fisarmonica players like me, who derive their (limited) playing skills from their mandolin playing.

Ricardo T plays an organetto, as y'all...

Thanks, Jim.

A Harwood, you say.

Have you had a look at the thread here on Harwood mandolins and guitars?

I have a special place for Harwood mandolins. I own a Harwood with a mahogany...

Jim, we were just discussing bowlback mandolin fretboards in another conversation here. ;)

That's why I enjoy the Cafe vibe of the MC.

It's like you're in one conversation and you overhear...

The above advice is right on.

I've done the above described fretboard replacement operation on numerous bowlbacks, and one of the major side benefits in starting with a pre-slotted fretboard blank...

So many of the Japanese label bowls I have seen from recent ('60s-present) have been Calace inspired, so it must have started somewhere and, Wendy, your grandfather's mandolin might be at the start...

Missed this when it was first posted.

That rosewood back is amazing, Bruce.

Mick

From David: "Seen them and played them

Nice tone...not nice enough to bother."

Thanks, Mike.

Can you resend that link? It's only leading me to a Reverb home page.

Yes...you're right, I mispoke / typed. That volute (thank you, Diego Garber) isn't an actual joint. ...

I'm not sure I'm with you on this, Mike.

I'd like to see one of these "Favilla copies" that we can be sure about.

Favilla had their own line of flatbacks with a distinctly different body...

Here's the Stewart labeled "Martin" from Jake Wildwood's site that Nick referred to earlier.

I quibble with Jake now and then on his assignations, but not on this one, volute and all.


I...

Fair play to you Fuzzy.

As Mike hinted with his request for a view of the rear head-to-neck joint, this detail is the smoking gun for me, too.

What our friend Diego Garber refers to as a...

Agree that the back shots will really help determine.

I'm pretty sure Martin used the same body molds for their jobber mandolins as for their own (and why wouldn't they?)

The Martin shape is...

Not sure, Cary, about this one being a Martin made Stewart.

Hopefully the OP can post some more photos out of its case to help determine.

Here's a rotated view of it for starters.

The...

Not sure what you're after, big fella.

Your metallurgy dump seems pretty irrelevant to my reply to Allen.

But I guess you felt the need to let us know.

I'll roll with your "And lastly...."....

Allen, I worked in a plating plant for awhile in high school. Evenings and a summer.

You're dead right. It was a corrosive fuming hell. No amount of Beat Poetry could offset that and I got out...

Fair play to you SmokyM.

I think you're local expert is pretty close.

From our experience here, I would ballbark this in the late '20s to early '30s as Chicago design styles began to change.
...