Violin shaped mandolin

[billkilpatrick]

check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ULTRA-R....8388208

[Jim Garber]

Prob doesn't sound all that good I would think esp with the violin bridge. There are others similar JTL for example.

[mandoisland]

It looks like an instrument called violaline and produced in Mirecourt / France around 1907.

Rolland Terrier, luthier at Mirecourt has a big collection of old catalogs from Luthiers at Mirecourt, one of those includes pictures and description of a violaline. You can view this catalog at:


Catalog Thibouville 1907 Mirecourt provided by Rolland Terrier

There are some other interesting catalogs which Rolland Terrier has scanned, I have discussed this (in German) in my weblog from November 2007

Mandoisland Weblog Nov. 2007

where you can find more links to the site of Rolland Terrier and to the catalogs scanned by him.

I think this is really a rare instrument!

[brunello97]

"Elle a un timbre qui lui est propre et bien fait pour charmer l'oreille des delicats."

I'm always looking for that.

Thanks for the great Thibouville catalog link, Michael. Your site is awesome.

Mick

[Jim Garber]

Getting back to the original instrument at hand: I don't think it is the same construction as the JTL violaline. Here is a violaline -- different bridge, extra soundhole and (it looks like) a deeper body. This looks like it may have been an off-the-rack violin or viola body adapted to make a mandolin-type instrument.

BTW the seller (who some of us know) is very knowledgeable and says it is likely German or Austrian.

[Graham McDonald]

A little divergent from the topic at hand, but that 1907 cattledog, has some fascinating things in it. They were making a bridge adjustable for compensation that looks remarkably like a Les Paul bridge. They were also making flat backed mandolins as well as bowl backs and the flat mandolin family of six instruments had a GDae octave mandolin (Mandoluth) between the mandola (Mandoviole) and the Mandocello (Mandole Bass).

Very intriguing stuff

Now back to the discussion on violin bodied mandos...

cheers

graham

[Jim Garber]

A little divergent from the topic at hand, but that 1907 cattledog, has some fascinating things in it.

Mirecourt was a hotbed of instrument making back then and the French, in any case, seemed to veer off in a lot of experimental directions.

[mandoisland]

Sorry,
I should have compared the pictures in the catalog with the instrument at ebay first. Thanks Jim for the real violaline by (or from the factory of) Jerome Thibouville.
Michael

[Jim Garber]

Michael:
Terrier's site is amazing. Thanks so much for the link.

I found that Ozelli mandolin in one of the catalogues. It was the subject of that thread some time ago.