50731-053-086
3/4/07
14:36
Page 80
RCM 374 Neapolitan Mandolin Lyon and Healy, Chicago, c.1900
RCM 316 Neapolitan Mandolin ?Italian, early 20th century
Inscriptions Two printed labels inside: GEORGE / WASHBURN / NEW MODEL FROM / Lyon & Healey / MUSIC DEALERS & MANFTRS / WABASH AVENUE & ADAMS S t / CHICAGO Printed on top block: 57902 Stamped inside: PAT MCH 10.91
Inscriptions None
Brief description Neapolitan mandolin made in Chicago, c.1900 Dimensions : 612 : 315 (front) : 207 : 162 : 328 Description Two-piece matched front, fine to wide grain at edges. Front and oval soundhole edged with pale wood lines and variegated purfling. Inlaid black plectrum-guard of synthetic material. Brass-plated tailpiece, with hinged cover and string-guard fastened by screw. Very deep back of nine ribs of alternate maple and ?walnut, the ribs next to the front much wider. Lined with coarse calico-type fabric. Capping-strip of rosewood. One-piece mahogany neck and peghead, faced with rosewood. Synthetic heads on machines. Soundhole: 65 × 40mm. Fingerboard width: at nut 28.5mm, at joint 38mm. Commentary From the 1890s or first decade of 20th century. The firm of Lyon & Healy was founded in Chicago in 1864; Lyon’s first names were George Washburn. Provenance Gift of Miss Band, 1978
Brief description Early 20th-century Neapolitan mandolin Dimensions : 589 : at front 303 : 196 : 151 : 333 (twice distance to octave fret 336) Description Four-piece front of wide to medium grain, wide at edges. Elliptical soundhole with collar of mother-of-pearl inlays in black mastic between double line of purfling. Edged with chequered band of mother-of-pearl and ebony, an inner line of mother-of-pearl in mastic, in rope pattern, and double purfling. Tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl marquetry plectrum-guard. Loose bridge with long dart finials and bone insert. Strings hitched to plated metal ‘saddle’ at tail with raised lugs to form ‘hitchpins’. Back of 21 ribs of rosewood with pale wood lines between. Capping strip edged with ?satinwood. Neck of, or veneered in, rosewood. Rosewood fingerboard with seventeen metal frets; mother-of-pearl fret markers at frets five, seven, ten and twelve. Machine-tuners of the same plated metal as hitchplate with bone heads. Bend in front: from tail: 110mm. Soundhole: 69mm broad, 43.7mm high; centre of soundhole from tail: 204mm. Fingerboard width: 27.6mm at nut, 36.3mm at joint. Provenance Gift of Miss Ursula Gale, 1965 References None located
References None located
Neapolitan mandolin Lyon and Healy, RCM 374 80
Neapolitan mandolin ?Italian, RCM 316