Antique guitarshaped mando?

[Jim Garber]

It would be great if someone here wins that one. I also wonder if all this interest and talk here will pump up the final bid on it. It is over $350 already. Could go to $450 or $500.

[Bill Snyder]

Howe Orme has been mentioned a couple of times now just for dating context. FWIW Howe Orme's earliest patents start in 1893 for a double strung guitar with the pressed cylinder top..

[Jim Garber]

I think there is a bidding war going on already for this mandolin. There are three or four bidders already fighting even at this stage.

[Jim Garber]

Holy Moholy! It has surpassed my prior prediction. I say maybe going up to $700.

I hope someone here gets it so we can hear if it sounds like anything.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Mandolin Luthier has these similar tuners shown on his site. I can't access his site right now but he may know what they are.

.

I've got tuners like those on a 1900 Vega Bowlback

[Eddie Sheehy]

The sides/back look like BRW?

[Jim Garber]

I've got tuners like those on a 1900 Vega Bowlback

What model Vega? The artist ones (Abt or Pettine) have full backplates just engraved nickel(?) not that goldish color. The one style 5 I have pics of just has engraved nickel in two separate parts, similar but not the same.

[Eddie Sheehy]

It has fancy fretmarkers, bound soundhole, neck and top; 13 BRW ribs, plain pickguard (or an outline where one used to be), herring-bone purfling. Tuner casings are plain brass-colored.

Also attached are tuner shots of some Martin bowlbacks and an SS Stewart flatback...

[Jim Garber]

Close but no real ceegar...

[Jim Garber]

BTW I did find another carved, guitar-shaped unlabelled mandolin in my files. This one looks more recent than the f-holed one in question.

I wonder if Mr. Bussmann will get a few orders for a copy of this one?

[Eddie Sheehy]

I was referencing bingoccc's post... He seemed to be talking about the shape of the plates, not the ornamentation. I have never seen ornamentation like those tuners.

[Jim Garber]

Holy Moholy! It has surpassed my prior prediction. I say maybe going up to $700.

I hope someone here gets it so we can hear if it sounds like anything.

Hey, I was very close: $715 (pat, pat, pat on my back). So... did anyone here score it?

[bingoccc]

I was referencing bingoccc's post... He seemed to be talking about the shape of the plates, not the ornamentation. I have never seen ornamentation like those tuners.

One of the reasons those caught my eye was not just the shape but the 7 screw, 4 exposed pin set up. It just seemed similar to me.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I went to $576 before I dropped...

[MikeEdgerton]

I started shying away from mandolins of unknown origin and provenance several years ago after getting emotionally involved in a bidding war, winning, then losing my backside trying to sell it. Apparently I was the only one that was really in love with it and after I got it I found it wasn't what it appeared to be. I hope the person that got this loves it.

[Jim Garber]

First I wonder if anyone here won it. Then I wonder that if no one here did that people reading about it got fired up about it. On the third hand, it is also likely that two or more of our group on this thread got into a bidding war unbeknownst to each other.

I have a few no-name mandolins. The best of these in terms of quality was this one. It is nicely made, and reminds me of this little guitar-mandolin and has a nice bright tone but I did not pay anywhere what the current one went for and I doubt I would have bid on this one had I felt flush enough to do so. I put some luthier bucks into it and it was worth it, I suppose.

[MikeEdgerton]

This one was the end of that behavior for me. I suspect that the person that bought it off eBay might be a cafe member but I don't know that for sure. Be assured they got a great deal on it.

[Jim Garber]

Too bad, Mike. I would have given you at least 700 schmidlares for that one. Remember, tho, I was the one who bought this beauty.

[Django Fret]

Sold for $715.00!