1890s Antonio Grauso Fancy Bowlback Mandolin

This lovely old bowlback mandolin has an "Antonio Grauso, Naples, New York" label in the soundhole. I'm guessing it was an American-made instrument, though, as it features American-style hardware throughout rather than the Italian-style hardware from the time and the build is not as delicate and light as your typical Italian mandolin. Considering that Grauso appears to have been a retailer, that means that this was made by another firm, but I'm not sure which one.

The owner's family has had this in their possession for ages but for many decades, now, it was in terrible shape It arrived here with the top almost detached from the bowl and crumpled-up about 1" from the middle of the body. Once removed, the top did not fit the bowl quite right anymore and so required some fussing. Most of the purfling lines were missing. More than half the inlay on the top edge was missing. The bridge had one wing broken off. An inlay was missing at the rosette. The fretboard had turned to tiny little chunks of brittle old wood and fallen apart. The bowl had some pretty ugly cracks in the back that were fairly wide-open. It needed a lot.

I used epoxy and tissue paper to reinforce the bowl separations on the back and then carefully fit the top back onto the instrument. All of the top braces needed to both be cut down to half-size (they were way overbuilt) and then reglued as they were all loose, anyhow. I then cut, installed, and cleaned-up all of the missing rope inlay -- this part is tedious but the end result was good, though not perfect. A perfect job would have required far too much expense for the owner. The last bit was fitting and installing a new rosewood fretboard. I used modern medium wire. I even kept the slightly off-center face dots just as they were on the original board...! Luckily, I was able to reuse the original nut after various shim/fill was added. I was also able to reuse the original bridge and fit a new, taller, compensated bone saddle insert in as well.

It has a spruce top over a Brazilian rosewood bowl, mahogany neck, ebony bridge, and rosewood board.