Bowlbacks of Note

**Jim Garber** · Jun-10-2005, 6:34pm

It looks like a previous owner pianted the front to match a chocolate bar. Amazing. That may be the only Calace I can afford at the moment. still I imagine it will go for much more than a non-calace basket case.

Sorry, I just took another look. It is not a Calace but a Pagace. Much different. Raffaele Pagace was famous for his hand-painted mandolins.

Jim

**Jim Garber** · Jun-14-2005, 8:52am

Originally Posted by (Alex @ June 09 2005, 16:34)

Here a 1897 Fratelli (Nic & Raf) Calace; an exceptional bowlback of note!

Click here to find it on Ebay

Check out the "ask the seller" emails for this Calace here. Nice (and smart) of this seller to let the auction run its course. Unless, of course he gets the proverbial offer he can't refuse.

Meanwhile, Marco is high bidder at €307 for the basket case "Pagace." At least he will restore it, hopefully properly. I have a feeling that it will go for over €500, tho. Probably needs €1000-1500 worth of work on this thing to make it playable, strip the top and refinish.

**Bob A** · Jun-14-2005, 11:25am

Yeah, well, I confess to making him an offer that it seems he could refuse. Way I look at it, if it's going to go cheap and early, why not to me?

Meanwhile it's no business as usual for the high-dollar Calaces, and even Marco's Maratea (?) went down with no bids.

**onthefiddle** · Jun-14-2005, 11:38am

The "Pagace" ended at 307 Euros. (How do you get a Euro symbol Jim? I have a stubbornly British keyboard with £ and $ only.)
It will be quite some time before it becomes available again I'm sure

Jon

**Jim Garber** · Jun-14-2005, 11:52am

Originally Posted by (onthefiddle @ June 14 2005, 12:38)

How do you get a Euro symbol Jim? I have a stubbornly British keyboard with £ and $ only.

Jon:
I work on a Mac so it is merely opt-shift-2 but it works differently on a PC. Eugene and I had this discussion some time ago and I was able to find the keycode for € for the PC but can;t find it at the moment.

Jim

**Eugene** · Jun-14-2005, 11:58am

alt+0128 generates €. Alternately, I also find EU$ to be acceptable.

**onthefiddle** · Jun-14-2005, 2:55pm

Thank you Jim & Eugene! All I need is an excuse to use it now

Jon

**Martin Jonas** · Jun-15-2005, 5:32am

Here is a set of closed bowlback tuners with bone buttons (one seems to be replacement). They look very similar to those on the plainer of my Ceccherinis. Might be a good buy for somebody needing replacements.

Martin

**Martin Jonas** · Jun-15-2005, 5:42am

This is a strange beast. It superficially looks like a de Meglio clone, but with an all-aluminium bridge, and both soundhole and cant seem strangely far down the body.

[On second read, I see that it has a completely new laminate soundboard. The mind boggles -- who on earth thought that was a good investment of time and money, and why was it done so distinctly non-authentic?]

Martin

**onthefiddle** · Jun-15-2005, 7:26am

I couldn't agree more Martin. This appears to have been by Carlo Loveri, who was a Neapolitan Violin maker. I would have liked it as a restoration project, but I'm not at all interested now.
I assume that the height of the ribs (depth of the bowl) was reduced, and this is what has caused the unusually low cant.
I'm not convinced by the effectiveness of the bridge design anyway (though maybe I'm just being conservative) - does anyone know if this was typical for his mandolins?

Jon

**Jim Garber** · Jun-15-2005, 8:00am

I just got a notice that William Petit has this nice looking Fratelli Vinaccia. No further details on the site but I emailed to find out condition, price and other minutiae. I will report back.

I am afraid it it definitely out of my league at the moment. Got to de-access that dross from my collection, like those guitars and replenish the BMAS account.

Jim

**Jim Garber** · Jun-15-2005, 8:20am

Originally Posted by (onthefiddle @ June 15 2005, 08:26)

I'm not convinced by the effectiveness of the bridge design anyway (though maybe I'm just being conservative) - does anyone know if this was typical for his mandolins?

This is a Loveri mandolin from Carlo M's site and is likely what the ebay one should look like. The bridge (tho truncated on the ends) is the std bone inset type. On the eBay one it also looks like the fretboard is inset into the body,tho it is a little difficult to tell from the photos.

It looks like the restoration on the ebay example was done quite neatly, but why in the world would they use laminated wood for the top? A real mystery.

Jim

**Jim Garber** · Jun-15-2005, 8:47am

Petit got back to me and the price is €2000 including 24 hour Fedex shipping to the US. Sounds pretty good for someone interested in such a thing.

Jim

**Bob A** · Jun-19-2005, 3:14pm

Well, the Calace Bros (1897) went for $1400. Not to me, alas, but I trust it'll be in a good home. Certainly a reasonable price (assuming it's not in need of repair).

**Plamen Ivanov** · Jun-20-2005, 9:47am

Hello!

Here is a post from the BDZ Discussion Forum:

"Abgeschickt von Ermanno am 19 Juni, 2005 um 10:21:45

hello, I sell mandolino Embergher n╟ 2 year 1936, perfect one to play. For other information to write to erza_2@msn.com"

I don`t know who it is. I just know, that there are people here, that might be interested in this one.

Good luck!

**Martin Jonas** · Jun-22-2005, 10:43am

Only two hours to go on this Guiseppe Vinaccia with maple bowl. Surprisingly low price so far (but the big hitters may be just around the corner).

And going from the sublime to the ridiculous: does anybody have a clue what this bowlback is all about. Looks ordinary enough, but what are the two extra tuners for? Looking at the nut sspacings, it seems to have been made into a 10-string at some stage and then converted back. Something wrong here, anyway.

Martin

**Jim Garber** · Jun-22-2005, 10:55am

A few bidders in Italy (including Marco) and one in Taiwan have already asked questions. We will see what happens. This is a fairly plain one but I am sure that it is nice.

It would be nice if one of us (not me... sigh!) could get it.

Martin? Bob? anyone else?

Jim

**Jim Garber** · Jun-22-2005, 12:27pm

Martin,
May I be the very first to congratulate you on that coup. Good deal, I hope. And I am looking fwd to reports after receiving it.

I did ask the seller for the additional photos about 10 minutes before the sale ended. Still looks good. Maple backed, which I imagine is rarer for these.

Jim

**Martin Jonas** · Jun-22-2005, 1:19pm

Thanks, Jim. This was very much a spontaneous bid -- I had no intention of going for it, but thought I can't just let it go for that when there were no further bids with five minutes to go. I'm still somewhat shell-shocked that I got it for what was a rather low-ball bid -- I was expecting Leuterius to have a much higher maximum. We've had Calace wrecks and no-names for more money than this reasonable-looking-if-plain Vinaccia. More news once I have it in my hands.

Unlike you, I didn't even get around to asking for those photos, so I'm relieved to hear that they look good (although of course one never knows until one has the instrument).

Martin

**Jim Garber** · Jun-22-2005, 1:51pm

Martin:
The only thing that is obvious from the additional photos is some veneer damage on the back of the peghead and the fact that the tuner plates are mismatched.

Jim

**Jim Garber** · Jun-22-2005, 1:53pm

Here is the label for Martin's new acquisition.

Jim

**Eugene** · Jun-22-2005, 2:50pm

Congrats, Martin!

**Martin Jonas** · Jun-22-2005, 4:15pm

Thanks, Eugene. Also thanks to Jim for those photos. The veneer damage is trivial. Clearly, both sets of tuners are non-original, so at least some work has been done on this in the past (indicating that it was played and not just sitting in an attic somewhere for a century).

I had a look through past discussions to see what there is on Giuseppe. I see that Bob has one, rescued from oblivion by Tom Crandall, but otherwise there isn't too much. In the Vinaccia family tree thread, Eric has quoted Sparks as implying Giuseppe was competing with the Fratelli Vinaccia workshop (i.e. Achille and Gennaro V.) in the late 19th century. One page back in the present thread, Alex mentioned Pasquale, Gennaro and Gaetano V. as being at their peak in the 1890s, but didn't mention Giuseppe. Otherwise, not much out there. The label clearly draws on a family relation to one or the other of the Gaetanos (of which there were at least two: the earlier 1759 - c.1831 and the later around 1900). Suddenly, I have a keen interest in the convoluted Vinaccia family tree. At least, there seems to be more information out there than there is on Umberto Ceccherini...

Martin

**Bob A** · Jun-22-2005, 5:04pm

Way to go, Martin! Glad I didn't see it before you won - I'm deeply addicted to maple bowls, but my debt can't take another mandolin hit anyway. I'm eager to read your impressions when once you get it in play.

**trebleclef528** · Jun-22-2005, 6:10pm

Congratulations Martin.... I was tempted, but my Bank Balance would have gone into shock.
A very good price, I'm really surprised "Marco and Co" did'nt go further, I'll bet they are kicking themselves.
Hopefully I'll get a good look at this at the next LGMA mandolin weekend?

Regards,
Ian and Barbara