Vintage Antique (late 1910's / early 1920's) Washington Mandolin + Original Canvas & Leather Case in fully functional, excellent condition. This professional quality antique mandolin is all original except for bridge and a fresh set of strings and plays and sounds good.
Washington was a brand name of the JW Jenkins Company of Kansas City which was one of the largest music instrument distributors in America between 1890's through the late 1920's. JW Jenkins Company also marketed the Harwood line of string instruments which are identical in specification except for the different headstock decals. JW Jenkins Company used sub-contractors to actually build their instruments though and this particular antique mandolin exhibits all the attributes of being built by Regal Music Instrument Company of Chicago.
This heirloom instrument is professional quality in every way and features a solid tight grain mahogany neck and headstock with rosewood headstock veneer and beautiful rosewood fretboard, solid spruce top with fancy binding around top edge and soundhole with original acetate pickguard, and beautiful solid mahogany back & sides. The original pancake tuners are in excellent condition and function well, the nickel plating on the brass tuning machines coverplate and tailpiece assembly are in excellent condition. Amazingly, the original headstock decal is still present and in excellent condition.
This instrument is far above average condition for it's extreme antiquity but there are a few dehydration related repaired cracks in the solid mahogany back section but the repair work was professionally done and is limited to just those two cracks which are now hard to see unless you view the instrument up close. The original ebony bridge is long gone but a period correct Grover non-tip bridge has been installed in it's place. Overall, there is hardly any playing wear and only minor handling wear, it is obvious this instrument has been kept in it's case and reasonably well maintained throughout it's 90+ years in existence. The original canvas and leather flannel lined case is in remarkably good, fully functional condition as well but has had a few minor case repairs.
The excellent condition, high level of fit and finish, combined with the exotic rare solid tonewoods results in a beautiful heirloom professional quality music instrument that is fun to play and hard to put down, you won't be disappointed!
American made quality!
Due to high UPS & FEDEX rate increases, I now prefer to ship USPS. This neat old mandolin will be bubble wrapped inside hardcase and professionally packaged.
Thank you for your interest, message me with questions. My name is Dutch.
LAY-AWAY purchase plan with 50% down with 60 days to pay off balance through Reverb.com is available for those interested!
