Any info on a "V. Spadea" 10 string guitar?

[Kurt Jay Fiedler]

I just got an old 10 (ten) string guitar (five double string courses) labeled "V Spadea Factory  2204 2nd Ave NY" tapped into the face of the headpiece where Gibson and Dudenbostel etc inlay their names- no label inside. Fair condition. It is about the size of a 00 Martin or a little smaller. It has 10 frets. The fret board is flush with the body - does not extend into/over it.  It has the top (belly) canted downwards from the bridge (like a bowl-back mando) and has  5 string-pegs which insert through the butt of the instrument into the end block.
I have discovered from the net that a Spadea guitar was recently for sale on something like ebay, but no pictures are available, and that V. Spadea himself was a copywrited music composer in the early 1900's, and that East Harlem address used to be in an Italian neighborhood with lots of stringed instruments importers/manufacturers...

What I really want to know is, does anybody know the likely tuning? The nut and bridge are so beat up I can't tell if it had octave-apart high and low strings on the lower courses or uniform pairs all across...
Thanks for your thoughts.

[Todd Cambio]

Vincenzo Spadea owned a music store in New York in the early 1900s.  He was not a manufacturer, but sold a variety of instruments, primarily woodwind and brass instruments.  I've seen some guitars with his label which were made by Italian luthiers who worked in New York, principally Antonio Cerrito.  The instrument that you have is a chitarra battente, a traditional Italian instrument.  It's possible that one of the independent Italian luthiers built it, but it's likely that it was built by Oscar Schmidt.  I haven't seen any chitarra battentes by any of the independent luthiers, but Oscar Schmidt ones occasionally show up.  Can you post pictures of it?