Anonymous Mandolins

This mandolin lost its label but

possibly it never was there.

17 ribs on the back besides the two

bigger endribs.

On both sides of the endcap it has

two holes in order to enlarge its

sonical response. Regarding the

endcaps' lay out this had to be done by

 the luthier himself.

Dave Hynds helped me a lot in solving

the mystery and finding the origin

of this instrument. Several things are

pointing in the direction of Carlo Loveri

who was quite a respected luthier

and known for his violins as well.

This endcap lay out as well as the two holes

on both sides is a Carlo Loveri invention.

Again a crackfree soundboard though most

cracks are repairable and do not influence the

sound of the instrument

in a negative way. This one has a nice

woody sound! The soundboard inlay and the

edge just underneath it indeed has a lot

in common with the Loveri mandolins.

Furthermore the bracing of the soundboard

is typical as is the neck inlay to its' body.

The headshape differs from most Loveri

mandolins but this was a common one

at the turn of the century (1900) being the

Vinaccia lay-out.

The Carlo Loveri & Figlio Label as it should be:

Signed in red pencil. I recently was able to investigate

the strutting of the soundboard. Loveri uses braces of

remarkable width as can be concluded from

the colouring of the wood of the table. See picture below.

With many thanks to Dave Hynds for providing these pics.

the same remarkable width of the braces in my mandolin.

I presume it was Dave's choice to replace the original

ones with a tinier construction for sound purposes.

Anonymous Instrument

This anonymous instrument has a real nice tone

and probably the headstock and scratchplate
shape can tell a bit more regarding its' builder.

Beautiful choice of woods as the brazilian rosewood

colours this back in a surprising way.

This mandolin also bears no label but I was able to

compare it with a Giuseppe Vinaccia put up for

sale on an auction in London. The scratchplate

design as well as the edges of that instrument were

similar. From the headshape you can't tell that

much as a lot of mandolins had this headshape.

The sound is very distinctive and punchy however.