The mandolin spread before us is one of the fancier models of Washburn turn-of-the-century bowlback. It has a fingerboard that is entirely covered in a veritable aurora borealis of multi-colored abalone, etched and blackened on frets 5,7,10 and 12 with Victorian era illustrations, a mother of pearl bordered oval soundhole – said hole is, itself, bound in grained ivoroid, then there’s a ring of checkerboard, a crème and then a red wood purfling line, the pearl, and the pattern is reversed.