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Thread: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

  1. #1
    Registered Registerer Champlin's Avatar
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    Default Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    Hi folks,

    I can't remember ever seeing one of these before. Anybody have any info?

    It appears to be all solid mahogany, perhaps a pressed arch, dyed whatever-wood fretboard, mother-o-toiletseat headcap. 14" scale length.There's some residue from what may have once been a label inside.

    Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

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  2. #2
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    I would assume it was built by Harmony in Chicago. It's their shape and is very similar to some catalog pages.
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    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  3. #3
    Registered Registerer Champlin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    That's it! Thanks very much!

  4. #4

    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    Back in about 1933 and 1936, Sears Roebuck sold a guitar with that pearlette headstock overlay using their Supertone brand. The company owned Harmony from 1916 to 1941. It is likely that your mandolin was retailed as a Supertone as at that time you had guitars and matching mandolins for sale. I can post a photo on the Harmony site- one of the members has access to the Sears catalogues online.

    Edit: My brain has woken up, I still think your mandolin was probably sold as a Supertone but the Harmony models were sold as a Valencia. The Valencia was both sold as a guitar, tenor guitar or mandolin. I have one of the guitars- also sold by a third party- it is an arch top round hole. Here is one of the mandolins at what appeared to be a very good price>

    https://reverb.com/item/13482522-193...nd-plays-great
    Last edited by NickR; Jan-14-2022 at 3:41am.

  5. #5
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    Harmony was selling instruments built for the trade all through the years they were owned by Sears. You will see them with no name at all as well as dozens if not more brand names. Absent a label or the remnants of a label you can pretty much assume it wasn't sold as a Supertone. Sears sold plenty of instruments but if all Harmony sold was what was sold through Sears they probably wouldn't have stayed in business.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

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  7. #6

    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    Here is a midget photo of the Supertone 265 which was Sears, Roebuck's version of the Harmony Valencia. You can see it has a cream pickguard and stencilling. It is possible if this mandolin was sold as a Supertone it would also have had a cream pickguard and stencils like this guitar. The Supertone label at this time was quite a big square with a circular area of print.

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  8. #7
    Registered Registerer Champlin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    Thanks for all the thoughts and info. Nailing it down from it's factory was the main thing I was looking for. I love old Harmony stuff and have seen and owned lots of supertone branded stuff too. The brand on this mandolin will remain an unknown to me, but just knowing it's Harmony is cool. Great looking guitar there. Cheers!

  9. #8
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    I love the unique shape. It is almost like the body is dynamic and is in the first steps of developing gradually into an F style body. A scroll and a point are maybe someday going to sprout from the "shoulders". Or maybe the other way, the body is in the last throes of turning A, from a formly F style.

    Really great find.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  10. #9
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    This would have been a few decades after the F was a reality but I'm sure whomever designed it at Harmony would have appreciate the Kudos. I've always been a bit intrigued by the odd way it curves. I think the headstock has a certain East Asian look to it. It probably inspired those designs.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  11. #10

    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    The photo in the Harmony Guys website has drawn a result- the Supertone 385 which was for sale from 1931 to 1933, so may be earlier than the first Harmony date stamp used in late 1932. The rudimentary drawing does show the slightly odd shape to the body which Harmony referred to as a lute shape. The pickguard is in fact black and there is no stencilling. It cost nearly $12 which as a mail order company would be $20 plus in a music store- so not cheap unlike the one with laurel leaves above it.

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  12. #11
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    Am I missing the stenciling on the OP's mandolin?
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  13. #12

    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    I assumed that the mandolin as sold by Supertone had stencils if it was finished to match the guitar I posted up but it appears in the illustration it does not have any. Supertone instruments were tweaked from catalogue to catalogue and it may be possible that stencils were applied at one time during the run. The cheaper mandolin in the Supertone illustration has stencils as I mentioned but not the one that matches the mandolin under discussion.

  14. #13

    Default Re: Help identify old mahogany mandolin

    I may as well post this advertisement from the 1935 Sears, Roebuck Supertone listing. We were discussing the lower one in another thread not so long ago but I cannot find it at present. The mandolin above was posted in a Kay Kraft discussion but it has numerous Harmony hallmarks.

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