Any guesses on this SGW bowlback?

[mrmando]

https://shopgoodwill.com/item/164673677

I don't buy the "Italian" claim. This is as American as the day is long. It has a cloud tailpiece and someone's stuck an adjustable bridge on it. But it has many, many ribs and a tasteful amount of bling, so it was some American company's idea of an upper-end mandolin. Ideas?

[rickbella]

Martin used engraved cloud tailpieces and covered tuners on a lot of their upper-end bowl backs. But I wouldn't automatically call it a Martin.

[NickR]

It has a Lyon & Healy look about it- especially the headstock.

[Richard500]

Well now that we’ve alerted everyone…. definitely the high end of someone’s line, and appears very well preserved too. If I didn’t already have too many it would be a centerpiece, and maybe even playable. The fire-themed case liner is something of a collectible too - I’d preserve that.
In that it’s on SGW, there’s even a chance there’s a readable label inside. They mostly don’t know to look.

[NickR]

It looks a lot like an 1896 Style 160 Washburn- headstock shape and 34 ribs and no fingerboard extension. I imagine it may be a mandolin based on that spec but for a dealer which may be why there is no label mentioned.

[rickbella]

It looks a lot like an 1896 Style 160 Washburn- headstock shape and 34 ribs and no fingerboard extension. I imagine it may be a mandolin based on that spec but for a dealer which may be why there is no label mentioned.

That happened often in that era. My first mandolin was a Lyon & Healy bowlback made for Carl Fischer

[brunello97]

It looks a lot like an 1896 Style 160 Washburn- headstock shape and 34 ribs and no fingerboard extension. I imagine it may be a mandolin based on that spec but for a dealer which may be why there is no label mentioned.

I second Nick's L+H provenance.

The mandolin may not be from Italy, but I've been to some good Italian restaurants in Chicago.


I'm typically willing to give the SGW folks a lot of slack when it comes to their ads. Their situation is far different than someone selling on ebay or the inflated purple prose of a famed Staten Island mandolin shop.

The bowl looks a lot like the L+H j-a-t of making one stave look like two or three by inlaying a spacer strip within the stave itself.

I suppose other folks pulled the same gimmick off, but when it's advertised in a catalog as "34 staves!" with the presumption that "more staves = higher quality" it is mas que muy sketchioso.


All that said, it looks like a pretty nice mandolin, the gawky bridge notwithstanding.


But then there's the poor kid who had to give up his Wagon Train pajamas to reline the case.

Mick

[Richard500]

But then there's the poor kid who had to give up his Wagon Train pajamas to reline the case“
Not Dalmatians and a fire wagon?

From number of bids so far, guess it will snipe up for……way much.

[Richard500]

I was wrong - no snipe war and went for about $190. That seems to be a reasonable (thrift store) price for even a fancy, well-preserved bowl back these days. An affordable species for both players and collectors.