Zozef bouzouki from Northern France

A late 1960s- beginning of 1970s Terzivassian workshop musical instrument !

Livry-Gargan  is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 15.6 km (9.7 mi) from the center of Paris.

Some time ago, an elderly man from  Livry-Gargan was selling a unique-looking  four course vintage bouzouki. I was almost sure that I had seen the pickguard design on another bouzouki before, but as much as I tried, I could not remember when and where 

The contact person for the sale was the owner's grand-daughter who  was barely speaking English and zero Greek. The owner of the bouzouki had given strict orders to his grand-daughter, and had refused in the past to sell the bouzouki outside Paris (as he was accepting only a local pick up transaction).

Couple of months later the grand-daughter communicated with me expressing the desire to personally pack and ship the musical instrument and send it for restoration to my luthier in Athens Greece.

By curiosity before I agreed, I asked for more photographs of the instrument trying to understand the initial condition.

The bouzouki was carrying a unique pickguard design, and a unique vine design on the fretboard  

The shape of the headstock and the design reminded me bouzoukia made and sold by Zozef Terzivassian, but I was still not certain.

The deliciated bridge also foretold  Zozef's  1970s bouzoukia bridges

The musical instrument was carrying an original 1970s IDEAL pick up.

I asked the grand-daughter a last photo from the inner bowl , which confirmed my suspicious for a bouzouki made or sold in Zozef Terzivassian's workshop. The bouzouki carries the olderer label with the six digits telephone number (crossed  by the luthier with a pen and written the seven digits telephone number) which reveals approximately the time of its construction during the late years of 1960s and early years of 1970s.

It was not long before I finally remembered where I had seen a similar Zozef Terzivassian bouzouki with the same unique pick-guard decoration.

Similar bouzouki sold on Reverb Australia in 2018

The bouzouki has taken the path of a careful restoration by the hands of the talented luthier Stelios Tsilimigkas, ( https://steliostsilimigkas.wixsite.com/luthier)

Stay tuned as the following weeks new updated photos after restoration will be uploaded.