Gelas Type Double-Top ConcertMandolin (J. Rowies Label) 1927

This Double-Top Concert Mandolin, Gelas-type, bearing a J. Rowies label and dated 1927, belongs to one of the most distinctive chapters in French lutherie for plucked string instruments: the acoustic research centered around the double-top system devised by Lucien Gélas in the early 20th century.
Lucien Gélas, a French luthier, composer, and pedagogue born in 1873, filed as early as 1905 a patent applied to instruments with double soundboards, with the aim of improving projection, clarity, and harmonic richness without sacrificing responsiveness to the player’s touch.
This principle was quickly noticed in the European musical landscape, to the point of being awarded several gold medals at national exhibitions, helping to establish the name Gélas within the world of concert mandolins and plectrum ensembles.
Between the 1910s and 1930s, this double-top concert mandolin aesthetic perfectly met the expectations of musicians seeking greater presence, definition, and volume, at a time when the mandolin was enjoying significant growth in salons, amateur orchestras, and the concert repertoire.
Gélas, who conceived his double-top guitars as instruments with dual resonance, extended the principle to other instruments, including the mandolin, entrusting their construction to luthiers such as Gaudet, Beuscher, Richard Jacob, and Jean Roviès.
Thus, the J. Rowies label does not refer to a mere trade name, but to Jean Rowies, a Parisian house closely linked to the publishing and distribution of repertoire for mandolin, guitar, and mandolin orchestras, also identified in preserved or documented instruments as a retailer of “Gelas” models in Paris.
In short, this 1927 Double-Top Concert Mandolin, Gelas-type, combines the historical significance of a French innovation, the heritage charm of a vintage instrument, and the musical appeal of a design conceived to serve both melodic precision and sonic breadth.

Technical specifications:

• Top: Spruce (double soundboard)
• Back: Flamed maple, 21 ribs
• Neck: Maple
• Fingerboard: Ebony
• Nut width: 27.5 mm
• Radius: Flat
• Frets: 20 frets
• Scale length: 336 mm
• Neck profile: V
• Pickguard: Cellulose acetate
• Country of manufacture: France, Paris
• Year: 1927
• Finish: Natural
• Appointments: Rosette purfling / Rosewood top binding / White mother-of-pearl dot inlays
• Details: Signs of wear and normal use consistent with its age / Excellent condition / Non-original string retainer / Supplied in its original case
  

Like all our instruments, this mandolin has been carefully set up.
As such, it offers excellent playing comfort.
Its tone reveals a full, deep, refined, and richly harmonic timbre, both enveloping and remarkably projecting, supported by a powerful, clear, balanced, and elegant projection that fills the space.
It delivers a lively, precise, dynamic, and expressive response, blending warm, crystalline, and generous nuances, with a broad resonance and a seductive harmonic palette that will delight musicians and enthusiasts alike.