De Meglio Company and the House of Savoy

[onthefiddle]

Just a quick addition pertinent to the original subject of this thread - a couple of labels from my little collection, both featuing the same coat of arms. These are from another De Meglio, and a Fratelli Vinaccia.

As Martin pointed out - Queen Margherita was a mandolinist and a Vinaccia that belonged to her is (hopefully) currently housed in the V&A in London. To my mind this gives more credibility to the idea that the De Meglio workshop may have enjoyed similar royal patronage to the Vinaccias.

[MandolinoNapoletano]

Thanks for the pictures, it's always great to see more documented evidence on the subject. The fact of the matter is you will see this coat of arms on many mandolin labels because it means it was approved to be sold by their government, which supports my point. It wouldn't have got the royal coat of arms stamp if it contained fallacies in the label. Therefore Giovanni De Meglio was a knight and a supplier to the Royal Family, and also to cancel out all the speculation that the label was just stuck on to sell to english people - it was a Neapolitan produced mandolin.