The war hero and the “Uknown “ luthier

And a label with few historical information !

From time to time, there are these stories, regarding  people’ lives, which can really captivate us! 

Twelve years in the “making” of  this blog , I have come across few stories of individuals, which inspired me and deeply captivated me. The following is one of them !

It was a cold night of February when I contacted Cheri, a lady who buys estate antique furnitures , restores them, and re-sales them. She had in her possession an old violin and an old lute/ mandolin with a long neck. 

The deceased owner of the instruments accordingly to Cheri was a gentleman who served during the World War 2 and lived a long period of his life in Boston USA and  in Germany.

He was a very refined man and had a taste for very fine things in life. Cheri had acquired a lot of things that belong to him.  Sadly  they were just disregarded and nobody cared about them. She had felt the need to hold onto them, and learn more about him.

The long-neck lute accordingly to Cheri, had a maker’s label but the wooden rosette , prevented her from seeing and identifying the language on which the label was written,  and what was also written. Due to the blurry photos of the instrument (which Cheri had originally sent me ) became unclear if this was a Greek musical instrument, or a string instrument from the surrounded Balkan region . The pick-guard of the instrument had gone under an amateur  restoration with additional material added on each side of the sound hole, fact that made it very odd to be an old Greek bouzouki at the first sight.

But both Cheri and I were determined to solve the riddle regarding this string musical instrument’s origin 

After many unsuccessful tries  by Cheri in an attempt to captivate with her camera  the inside of the label, she decided to write on a piece of paper the letters of the label which she could easily see and identify with naked eye.

Success ! It was finally obvious that this was a Greek music instrument:  perhaps a vintage mandola or an old bouzouki . I could easily now identify by Cheri’s handwriting the Greek word “ ΟΡΓΑΝΩΝ» , meaning musical instruments.

But soon enough, the first feelings of excitement substituted  by more anxiety and questions regarding the maker. Who was really the maker of this old Greek instrument ? From my memory I could quickly recall that neither A Stathopoulos , neither Theodoros Karabas, neither Dimitrios Grachis had on their labels the word “ΟΡΓΑΝΩΝ»

Cheri in the meanwhile was finally able to get a clearer photo of the label outside the wooden rosette.

 But,… lets keep the suspense regarding the luthier’s name for a bit longer . The story becomes more and more interesting.

Cheri shared with me that night, few more photos/ documents of the  bouzouki’s original owner . Was an identification military ( Navy) card, a driver’s permit from Kahului Maui Hawaï, and a military temporary camera possession pass.

Two days later, Mr Panagotopulos  bouzouki was delivered at the talented hands of the luthier Chris Pantazelos who for once again performed an absolutely superb restoration !

At this point I would like to also express my “thank you” to  the talented luthier and researcher Petros Moustakas who gave me valuable  information regarding the missing tailpiece wooden hitch-pins. 

Chris registered all of the specifications for this unique bouzouki. Accordingly to Chris the construction is solid and reveals the hands of a talented master luthier. The materials which the luthier used are far less elaborated, comparing to the exotic woods and White Seashell decorations used by many master luthiers of the early 1900s

-Bowl : 9 Mahogany  and 10 Cypress wood. It has back capping strip but absence  of side strips 

-Soundboard : Red spruce wood

-Neck : brown stained Pine wood 

-Headstock : brown stained Pine wood

-Neck to headstock V joint 

-Bridge : brown stained maple or plane wood

-Fretboard : Angelique wood (?) or other tropical hardwood 

-Rosette : Cretan maple, painted gold

-Pick-guard : walnut veneer, dyed black

-Frets: bar frets ( Nickel- silver )

-Tuning machines : brass with silver plated,  old style with the gear furthest  away from fingerboard. 

-Tuner knobs : made out of bone 

-Fret markers : natural mother of pearl

-Side dots : metal -possible nails (original) 

-Binding : black walnut veneer and holy veneer

-Instead of tailpiece : three wooden pins   

-Construction of soundboard : Considerable arch approx 8-9 mm

-Finish : mat - few layers of French polishing / shellac 

-Glue used for the construction : milk casein glue

-Scale: 64.2 cm

-Overall length : 91 cm

-Length of bowl : 35.6 cm 

-Width  of bowl: 24.2 cm  

-String set up : 3-2-3 

-Circa: approx 1905-1910

I asked every luthier, collector,  researcher, and historical author regarding this bouzouki’s luthier . No one knew or had heard anything about him . 

The only luthier who had previously restored an old mandola  ( mandolin bowl with longer neck- similar to the bouzouki ) with tuning La-Re-Sol-Do, and an old tamboura by the same luthier was Dimitris Daras. Knowing that Dimitris lives in Nafplio Peloponnesos and the luthier in discussion was from Tripoli Peloponnesos, I took the chance to ask Dimitris as my last resort, if he knew the luthier, and the leap of faith finally paid off.

The luthier’s name is Athanasios Fragos from Tripoli as his label states. The label is very informative and casts some light into historical informations which were previously uknown to us,  regarding the creation of early instruments in the family of tamboura and bouzouki. These information will be revealed in another post at the near future.

Athanasios Fragos presents his workshop as a fully developed factory constructing a plethora of string musical instruments.

At the end of his label he also advises his clientele to buy musical instruments only from domestic ( Greek) luthiers.( perhaps a bitter remark towards the famous luthiers of NY and Chicago) 

Finally, the label mentions that has been printed at the old newspaper “ MOREAS” of Tripoli . 

After some intense research I found that the newspaper MOREAS  was founded in the year of 1900

And finally here a small part of Ath. Fragos label.

 

The only clear photograph I received from Cheri during our initial conversation.

Part of the label before bouzouki’s restoration