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The headstock of your mandolin should like this one. It may well be that Meinel & Herold of Klingenthal made your mandolin. There are differences but this firm made mandolins with this style of...

Bonhams got the date on that banjo mandolin somewhat wrong- it has a lion on the headstock which George Houghton began to use in the mid-30s It's an instrument that you would be lucky to make £100...

The tuners are German made- so it was probably made somewhere in Europe. It's hard to give a date- probably after WW2 and possibly in the Eastern Bloc but I am surmising from those tuners. Tuners...

Yes, very interesting and useful to have a concise article with the relevant links in one account.

I am just wondering if some Stradolin branded mandolins were made in the Far East. I know some guitars were made there to be branded as Stradolin for sale in the USA but I am not sure about...

Can you show photos of the back of the headstock so we can see the tuners and the back of the mandolin as well, thank you.

Your mandolin has a truss rod which did not appear until about 1922 and it also has engraved Waverly tuners which Gibson began to use in the mid to late 1920s- depending on the model, so the date of...

Yes, peened tuner gears prevents this particular problem. I bought on eBay a 1936 Gibson made A50 variant- the Wards Model 1642- and it was missing one tuner post- as presumably, the screw had got...

To be frank, those screws came in the units from Waverly to be screwed on to Martin mandolins. It is just possible that Martin had a few spare screws when your mandolin was made but there is really...

When I bought my nylon strung acoustic a few years back, I did as much research as I could and found nothing definitive about the firm other than it appeared to have ended production some time in the...

Yes, that's it- back at school as a kid, I would have been admonished for such a lack of clarity in my handwriting! Okay, so maybe time has worn away some of the definition. Let's hope- unlike the...

Here is an old French flat back with a canted top and slot head. I would definitely date this one as older than the mandolin in question here but I would struggle to give it a definite date- it may...

Jim Garber suggests that it is a "nightingale singing" but I reckon it is a raven croaking! Anyway, it is a nice little motif.

Was the pickguard elevated like on this Vega- the closest instrument I could think of as similar to your mandolin? ...

My best guess is that it was made in East Germany or Czechoslovakia in the 1950s- possibly the 1960s. It has similarities to a Hofner 542 or 545 and Framus also made a mandolin with these "cat's...

Mick, thank you for your input. I have an OS Sovereign- a really great instrument and it did not cost very much- and it came in a very good original hard case. Mine has that little plate tacked to...

Jim, thank you for getting those photos up. I assume the seller states Italian because it looks a little bit exotic! I can't make out aspects of it- it's had some mods!

I would wager big money this is a 1930s Oscar Schmidt in the Sovereign department. The seller does not accept questions but I am assuming it probably has a number on the brace below the sound hole-...

Most likely German- possibly Czech. It is for sale in Germany. Looks like the UK is off limits!

It's an unplayed mandolin- it might take a bit of time to "wake up" and get a bit louder. New strings will help. I would be tempted to work hard on it so when the new strings arrive, you will have...

That guard needs to go into isolation away from the instrument! I suppose it is less of a hazard if it is out in the open but you don't want nitric acid dripping over your Fern!

Here is an "Italian" mandolin- lower quality but very similar-same tailpiece but tuners are recessed and they look American made. I have taken a closer look at your photos and can see the tuners are...

The tailpiece is American but the same tailpiece can be found on Clifford Essex of London mandolins. I have been told that those mandolins were made in Europe and finished off in London- hence the...

Weymann stopped making instruments in the mid to late 1930s and started to buy in and label third party made instruments. The last Weymann branded mandolin- made in about 1939, I saw, was made by Kay...

The body reminds me of some Vega made mandolins post-WW2. I don't know if those Kluson tuners are original but would mean it was late 1940s at the oldest. Of course, it may have been subject to some...