Page "Mandolin" Paragraph 14

At the very end of the nineteenth century, a new style, with a carved top and back construction inspired by violin family instruments began to supplant the European-style bowl-back instruments, in the United States.

This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by Orville Gibson, a Kalamazoo, Michigan luthier who founded the " Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited " in 1902.

Gibson mandolins evolved into two basic styles: the Florentine or F-style, which has a decorative scroll near the neck, two points on the lower body, and usually a scroll carved into the headstock ; and the A-style, which is pear shaped, has no points, and usually has a simpler headstock.