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 shape. If they were going to copy a Martin mandolin verbatim, the simply question as to
"why" comes to mind, when Martin was already making mandolins for other vendors.
And Favilla never used that volute joint on their mandolins. I have a hard time contemplating that they would go to those lengths for a couple of copies when Martin was already making mandolins without it.
Speculation, of course, like "because they had a customer" will always be possible answers, but again, sometimes the simplest answer is the easiest.
If Richard and Frank have seen these in hand...and checked out things like the bracing inside then I think their reputation and cred comes to bear.
If they are guessing from photos, like we are, then I'm less convinced.
We've seen a few odds and ends "Martin employee" instruments here that had a wide range of non standard details.
I bought an 'unfinished Martin' mandolin off of ebay a few years ago: rim set, unfinished neck, top, no back that must have walked out the door somehow.
I don't think Martin was as free from improvisation as we might feel based on the consistency of their iconic instruments.
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Favilla was a manufacturer that needed business to stay in businesses and was pretty good sized at one time. With that said, the earlier Favilla products were obviously their own but they did more than their share of work for the trade. Take a look at this mandolin. Does it look familiar? Sure, this was in the late 50's or early 60's but they had been building Martin clones on the guitar side for a long time. They certainly had the ability to build whatever they were contracted to build and I'm sure they did. Could they have built this SS Stewart mandolin? I'm positive they could have and would have but that doesn't mean they did or didn't. Just that they had a history and the capacity. Also, that's not a volute joint it's a carved volute as far as I can see. Even Martin wasn't using that volute on everything when this was built.
I'm not saying it's not a Martin instrument but it might not be.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
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.
Likely serving both decorative and structural functions.
Like the architectural volutes I had originally tied to the term.
Favilla in the '20s were still putting out mandolins and mountains of ukes. Picking up a stray one-off (well in this case two-off) Martin copy wasn't going to push them into the black. Fast forward 30 or 40 years? Maybe a different story.
Who else was using that neck - headstock 'volute detail'? If there were, they might turn out to be the unusual suspect.
Since Martin wasn't using them on all their mandolins, you could put out a successful, believable Martin copy for hire without having to go to that extra effort.
I suppose if you were a true counterfitter, adding that extra detail would be just enough to throw the detectives off your case.
Every so often the NYTimes used to run a piece on time big art fogeries and forgerers. I really enjoyed reading those.
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
Does this link work?
https://reverb.com/item/48529749
Both are working for me. See if you can search for item 48529749 on Reverb.
I don't see this as a forgery unless someone put the Martin markings on it. I can see a wholesale distributor buyer that was looking at a specific market saying make the body look like this and the headstock and neck look like that. Make the trim the same as this or that. I just don't know and I doubt they made one or two of these they may have made dozens. Then when nobody was buying them they stopped. No way of knowing.
It's not a new concept and even Martin is somewhat guilty of the same activities even today with their CEO line of guitars.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
After Stewart passed away, his sons took over the business, and around 1915 B&J bought the name and apparently doled out builds to a variety of builders. Do a google search for S.S. Stewart Martin guitar. When I bought a R.S. Williams banjo that was pretty much a S.S. Stewart banjo sold in Canada, I stumbled across this site, and it has several Martin guitars with the Stewart label.
https://mydirtyguitarhabit.com/s-s-s...banjeau-maker/
I am afraid that without some other makers mark, this mandolin may not be easy to pin down who exactly made it.
Girouard Custom Studio A Oval
P.W. Crump OM-III
A brief and incomplete chronology of the SS Stewart company:
1878: Samuel Swain Stewart begins building banjos and establishes a factory in Philadelphia.
1898: SS Stewart takes on George Bauer as a business partner. Stewart passes away in April.
1898 - 1901: Bauer takes control of the company and pushes Stewart's sons out of the business.
1901: Stewart's sons set up on their own, but give up around 1904
1901: Bauer continues selling instruments with the Stewart name until perhaps 1910. At some point, the factory is closed, and manufacturing is farmed out.
1911: The Keenophone Company acquires the Stewart name and continues to distribute instruments.
1915: Buegeleisen and Jacobson [B & J] acquires the Stewart name, and distributes Stewart branded instruments at least until WWII. These instruments include banjos, guitars, mandolins, and ukeleles. All manufacturing is farmed out.
Many of the Stewart instruments built for B & J were made by Chicago manufacturers such as Harmony, probably Lyon & Healy and Regal, and perhaps Slingerland. Other companies that built instruments with the Stewart name include Gibson and Martin. B & J also distributed instruments under other brand names, including Victoria. It would probably be safe to say that at one time or another, most US manufacturers of any size built at least a few instruments for B & J under various brand names.
I had a nice Victoria [by B & J] flat back mandolin go through my hands a few years ago. It was quite different in design from the OP's instrument. My guess was that it was made by either Regal or Oscar Schmidt. It was a good sounding mandolin.
Bookmarks