Circa 1940 Louis Patenotte Mandolin

Louis Patenotte was a French luthier who made guitars and mandolins from the late 1930s up through the 1960s. (His son Claude continued to build guitars up until 2010.) Patenotte lived in Mattaincourt, a village close to Mirecourt, the famous French town that has specialized in making stringed instruments since the late 1500s. Patenotte focused on making inexpensive versions of more costly instruments. He is best known for making reasonable copies of Selmer guitars, but he also made lots of classical guitars and a few mandolins. To put it in American terms, if Selmers were equivalent to Martin or Gibson, Patenotte was like Harmony or Kay. This particular mandolin was inspired by the work of Lucien Gelas, a musician and inventor who patented an unusual double top method of building fretted instruments that enjoyed a certain vogue in France in the early part of the 20th century. Gelas didn’t build himself but a number of luthiers such as Jean Rowies, Gaudet and Gerome did build instruments to his specifications. I’ve never had a chance to play a Gelas-style mandolin but I have played a couple of the Hawaiian guitars, and thought they had a light, clear tone with quite a bit of sustain. I presume the mandolins will have a similar sound. This example looks to be in very good condition and Gruhn Guitars has it priced at $500.