128 Year Old Maratea Mandolin - the start of the fix. Some novel findings inside.

Domenico Maratea. Info on them is scarce, but there's enough to know they're collectable, so if you sell, you'll get the best price from a collector (specifically a collector of Italian lutes / mandolins), rather than an antique store.
Domenico Maratea was a luthier from Naples whose workshop seems to have been in production from the 1890. In the 1800s, Naples was the top of four major cities of mandolin production in Italy - lots of highly regarded luthiers there. Maratea was a student of Fratelli Vinaccia ("allievo di Vinaccia"), one of Italy's foremost mandolin makers. (ie: The queen of Italy at the time played a Vinaccia commissioned especially from his workshop.) Basically, being able to put the name "Vinaccia" on your work was like a stamp of quality.
It would also probably be helpful to know that another Vinaccia student was also named Maratea (unknown if they were related) - Michele Maratea. His lutes / mandolins seem to be more well-known than Domenico, but the fact that they learned their craft in the same place shows in their work, specifically in the pearl and tortoiseshell inlays (a Vinaccio specialty), which are very similar to your mandolin. Just a heads up so there's no confusion.
1894, and Vinaccia's workshop was still in full swing at that time, (they actually moved into a bigger building in the 1890's to expand) so it seems Maratea split off to do his own work fairly early.
I hope that it hasn't been restored, since that can ruin many an antique if not done correctly. The case is in bad condition, but I love that it's still with the instrument. Someone clearly loved it a lot - the case is hand tooled (probably with handmade leather stamps!) and I haven't seen that veiner/camo tooling design before. I love that the owner glued a poster onto it - it's like putting band stickers on your guitar case these days, and it gives us a little glimpse into the journey this thing went on. It was made in Italy,
There is far too much misinformation online..so, for posterity..
Michele Maratea was(is) considered THE rightful heir to the Vinaccia method and workshop tradition. While he revered the Vinnacia, their methods, workshop ideology, etc, he is no copiest, but a link in the chain (as it and all arts used to be). He/they did not export instruments abroad as others did for foreign markets in the way others did...
The quality of his instruments are on par with Vinaccia as an heir apparent..and this is rather well known in Italy amongst luthiers and historians.
The Vinaccia did not have "scores of allievi" .. the various workshops had workers as all progressive luthier workshops did, but not all of them can be deemed "allievi".
Calling Maratea a copiest of the Vinaccia is like calling Romanillos a copiest of Torres.
Actual documented, and genuinely acknowledged allievi, number only about 10..
I suggest a search for the book, "The Classic Mandolin" by Paul Sparks. (Page 39)
Actual documented accounts taken from around 1880.
Ah, the internet..found:
books.google.it/books?id=GFC1....
Maratea was an awesome luthier and his work is very well respected (As are others here in Italy which do not seem to be abroad). One of the last/few genuine old school workshops and luthiers working to make the finest instruments genuinely unlike the greedy and vulgar luthiers from Catania building largely junk for export and profit.
If you are looking for the Vinaccia sound, quality, and methodology, Maratea is a bit easier to find and also less expensive.
It is a shame the prices they fetch as a result of ignorance and laws of economics at the moment, but this will change.
There is a great deal of misinformation and lack of information regarding the mandolin as it has suffered a dark age falling from popularity and disappearing about 100 yrs ago now.
It is only beginning to return and become known and respected as the instrument it once was by a handful of serious musicians.
It takes merely a quick search online to see the appalling lack of musicianship and quality of playing of the instrument by the general public.
But I digress...
Regards.
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