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RCM 19 Brescian Mandolin Italian, second half of 19th century, labelled Joseph Gallina
References Donaldson 1896, pl.X Baines 1966, p.35 & ill.
Inscriptions Spurious printed label on top-block: Joseph Gallina / Brixiae MDCC{- - -} [remaining three digits handwritten, erased] Brief description Nineteenth-century Brescian mandolin with four single strings of gut Dimensions : 494 : 241 : 198 : 92 : 337
Brescian mandolin, Italian, RCM 19: detail of pegbox
Description Front of one piece of wide-grained wood. Soundhole with bevelled edge, decorated with inlaid darts of shell between ebony lines, surrounded by a line of small leaf-shaped piercings and inlaid faceted glass beads. No rose; soundhole crossed by ebonised bar with ornamental notches. There are three other bars, one above and two below soundhole. Inlaid wood and mother-of-pearl floral decoration each side of fingerboard at neck-joint. Motherof-pearl inlay on black-stained bridge with elaborate floral moustaches. Guard of ?ebony at tail end. Edge of front decorated with alternate triangular darts of ebony and mother-of-pearl. Back of almost semi-circular transverse section. The back is not of the usual coopered ribs but assembled from triangles and diapers of ebony, mother-of-pearl and a variety of other woods, plain and stained, on a black cloth backing, giving a smoothly rounded surface. There is a central star-shaped ornament on the back. One-piece neck and pegbox of ebony. Four foliateheaded pegs stained black; two seem original, two replacements. Finial is a winged female head and torso with tiara and girdle of small inlaid ?pearls, facing away from the instrument and resembling a ship’s figurehead. Scrolling and carved acanthus ornament on sides and back of pegbox. Fingerboard has edging and nut of mother-of-pearl; nut is scalloped between string notches. Fingerboard and back of neck inlaid with engraved mother-of-pearl, and further ?glass inserts at neck joint; eighteen ?silver-alloy frets; neck joint at the eleventh fret. Fingerboard length: 215mm. Commentary Unusual in construction and decoration, and with a spurious 18th-century Brescian label, this appears to be a later example of the Brescian or Cremonese mandolin with four single gut strings and a tie-bridge; it dates from the 19th-century revival, when the mandolin became increasingly popular in Italy and highly ornamented instruments were produced. Provenance Gift of Sir George Donaldson, 1894
Brescian mandolin, Italian, RCM 19 77