Brescian Mandolin

Technical description: Soundboard of one piece of spruce. Bridge of maple (?) topped with an engraved piece of ivory. Bridge 95mm long and 12.5mm wide at the bottom. Inlaid rose of a geometrical design in wood. Rosehole diameter 76.9mm with two scribed lines acting as purfling. Inlaid ivory parallelogram pickguard between the bridge and the rosehole. The edging around the soundboard consists of alternate joining triangles of ebony and ivory. There are ebony extensions from the fingerboard onto the soundboard. The back is of 13 ribs of walnut, with holly (?) spacers. The exterior is rounded rather than faceted. Capping piece at the bottom of walnut and there is an ebony added piece around the ribs next to the soundboard to provide extra gluing area. The neck and head are of lime, stained to match the walnut ribs, with inlaid ebony and ivory strips in the back. The neck flows smoothly into the head, which has an inlaid piece of engraved ivory on the back surface. The head ends with a square finial, topped with a piece of ivory engraved with a grotesque head. The top edges of the head have been veneered in bands of ebony/ivory/ebony, and there is a band of engraved ivory behind the nut and a piece of engraved ivory from the upper edge of that piece down the slope to the top surface of the back of the head. Six fruitwood pegs, four are probably original with oval heads, the other two appear to come from a violin. The nut and the fingerboard are of ivory. Ebony frets, originally six in total. The neck is 90mm long, 45.5mm wide at the nut and 52mm wide at the body join.