Name of Instrument: mandolin

Maker / Brand: A. Stathopoulo

Stearns Catalog #: 1564

Country of Origin: New York, USA

Region of Origin: North America

Instrument Category: Chordophone

Date of Fabrication: 1912

Location: CHO MM 1

Description: This is an exquisite Mandolin; it has a printed label reading, “A. Stathopoulo, Manufacturer and repairer of all kinds of Musical Instruments. Patentee of Orpheum Lyra (Liouto). New York, 1912, USA.” It has a spruce table edged in a 1 cm band of pearl inlay. This is rimmed by alternating parallelogram-shaped pearl and tortoise-shell. The oval-shaped sound hole is rimmed with ivory. The bowl-shaped back is made of forty-one ribs of rosewood separated by thin maple strips. The ebony fingerboard has twenty-four frets of inlaid nickel-silver. The maple peg board has four machine pegs with ivory handles (back). The eight strings cross a delicate, bar-shaped, movable, unvarnished rosewood bridge placed above the bend in the table and then fasten to the lower side with hooks (covered with chrome plate).

Former Catalog Number: 1048A

Research: Dr. Bruce Mitchell Smith