Mandolin. Culture: American. Dimensions: Height: 24 9/16 in. (62.4 cm)
Width: 7 13/16 in. (19.8 cm)
Depth: 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm). Maker: Angelo Mannello (American, Morcone, Italy 1858-1922 New York). Date: ca. 1900.
Neapolitan style bowlback mandolin with seventeen inlaid nickel-silver frets on a tortoiseshell fingerboard. The bowl is extraordinarily decorated wiht a rich design of checkerboard pattern ivory and tortoiseshell separated by nickel-silver strips, and a profuse decoration in ivory inlay depicting a naked woman, putti playing instruments, grotesques, and floral designs. These decorative motifs continue on the fingerboard and peghead of the instrument. The maker's name is inlaid around the oblong soundhole.