c.1920s? Italian? German? Bowlback Mandolin

This is, to my best judgement, a bowlback built probably c.1920s or 1930s, European and probably from Italy or Germany. A Mr. Hanrahan is the owner and had me do some restoration and repair to it which has included:

1. A neck reset, due to a poor "repair" before... whatever glue the "repair" was done with was horrible to get out of the joint, it was like chipping away stone.

2. A light couple of coats of finish as the instrument had been "refinished" but apparently was never quite... finished... as it was quite permeable. It's now a lot healthier looking (and feeling).

3. A new ebony, compensated bridge, cut by m'self, as the original (actually replacement) was far too low to do the job.

4. And a setup, of course!

No doubt it's a cool mandolin -- and after all the work plays and sounds excellent, with very focused, decently loud, and resonant tone. The bowl and neck are actually solid maple, with a bit of flame here and there, but the previous "refinisher" stained them a "mahogany" color, which has obscured most of it. The maple, as one would expect, gives this instrument much more immediate focus with a crisp edge.

Cool slotted headstock with what one would assume to be c.1890s style brass tuners. Maybe... or maybe they're older stock... but they coincide with celluloid binding and early plastic nut.

A narrow neck is great for tremolo and melody but makes chordal passages a bit harder. MOP dots.

Inlaid ebony pickguard... nice touch.

And there's my compensated ebony bridge. You can't see it in the photos but the treble side is actually thinner than the bass side, which (I hope) leads to a good balanced tone. I think it turned out discreet enough to blend with the vintage aspects of the instrument. I've added rubber grommets to the strings on the tailpiece side to clear up extra overtones (desirable for playing leads).

Side.

Brass tuners with hollow shafts.

Back.


Bowl.


Headstock.


...

The tailpiece had to move slightly after the neck reset to stay on the center line of the neck. It had been moved a few times before, apparently, and under the plate there's actually a bigger drilled hole for perhaps an end pin?

And it has its very cool original canvas/leather case, too!