Identification please

[Sevelos]

A mandolin left from an old relative. Sounds great, by the way. Action just a bit too high.
Can someone help identify when and where it was made?
Is it worth any money?

[MikeEdgerton]

A mandolin left from an old relative. Sounds great, by the way. Action just a bit too high.
Can someone help identify when and where it was made?
Is it worth any money?

The trade mark label is in English and Spanish. That should help a little. Hopefully someone has seen that little red gnome label before. I don't think it was made in the US (I can guarantee it wasn't) and unknown maker bowlbacks rarely bring any real monetary value. The value is in the family history.

[NickR]

Looks very German to me- headstock, tuners and that purfling- I have that design on a mandolin from about 1930 made in Klingenthal, Saxony. It could also be from a few miles away in Czechoslovakia- where mostly ethnic Germans made stringed instruments in Schonbach. Those tuners buttons are redolent of the late 1920s to 1930s. This is not a slothead but it has the butterfly:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nice-very-o...-/133212924789

[NickR]

I've been thinking about that label- English and Spanish. That makes me wonder if the mandolin was originally sold in the colony of Gibraltar in the 20s or 30s. I know you see Spanish and English in the USA but I am not sure that was done 90 to 100 years ago.

[MikeEdgerton]

You probably wouldn't have seen it in the US that long ago. Now maybe but not back then.

[NickR]

Apparently, because of social media, Gibraltar's own unique local language, Llanito is declining as is the use of Spanish. Llanito is a mixture of English and Spanish but includes Italian, Portuguese and Arabic elements. I once worked with a Gibraltarian and she was a big fan of the band Firefall! As this mandolin lives at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, it may have got there via Gibraltar at the western end.

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