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Apologies for being away and thanks to our resident designer Ginny for putting the site back together. Our website host was taken over, then subbed out to someone else. Needless to say it has taken ages to find where it ended up and get it back online. In honey news... while we have been away we have been working on a massive project in Africa called ApiTrace. The whole of Africa contributes just 0.15% of the worlds honey exports as 98% is produced domestically, mostly by women and girls, and we are bringing the market for their honey to the rural community. Drop us an email if you want to receive regular updates, or visit www.bee.watch, www.theafricapicultureconsortium.org www.beespace.xyz. The project meets 14 of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. "bzzzz... VBM website is around here somewhere..." Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

We get all sorts of feedback from people, mostly friendly and Michael Wright, rightly wanted to put right the middle S in S S Stewart. The name Swaim first appears among the early Vikings who arrived and settled in Scotland in the medieval era. It’s derived from the Old English personal name Swein, originating from the Old Norse name Sveinn. Stewart is of Scottish origin from the old English word stigeweardmeaning “hall” “warden” and hence latterly the word steward. Michael also sent us a picture of the SS Stewart factory in Philly taken in 2011, Stewart's buildings being those with the grey-painted facade. This is just off N. 2nd Street in Old City. You could travel London looking for the premises of old makers like Dallas, Essex, Weaver, Scarth or Temlett but the blitz destroyed so much of these historic buildings and their makers records.

Was something wrong with the basic Sweeney design? to answer this question you have to relate banjo manufacturing in both the USA and the UK. It would be easy to assume that centres like Chicago and Philadelphia were at the top of the banjo output list, but population reflects demand and at the time, London was twice the size of New York and four times the size of Chicago; Birmingham was the size of Boston and the total population of the USA at 76million was not even double the UK at 46million. Secondly, density of population significantly affects the consumer's ability to respond to fashions and while the UK only had 2.5% of the landmass of the USA it had 60% of the population and was many years into it's industrial revolution. As a consequence, the UK could respond industrially to any demands placed on it. Curiously though, banjo manufacturing in London was more influenced by the USA, with regards to style and aesthetics, specifically by SS Stewart rather than by the industrial heartland of Birmingham, a mere 80 miles away from the capital. However it was not long before Windsor, Matthew, Houghton and Riley had industrialised the production of the banjo to meet the overwhelming demand of the fast-developing UK mass market. Metal was Birmingham’s stock in trade so the zither banjo, with its separately manufactured drum encased in a round wooden sound box (which had the neck attached to it) was the zenith of industrialised banjo manufacturing. The metal and woodworking skills only came together at the time of assembly. Why manufacture a separate 5th string peg when one could be incorporated, along with the rest in the peg head, and for many years with a spare! But don’t be fooled, there were many beautifully decorated zither banjos made and with the development of a classical style of playing, the more metallic tone was not to its detriment ... and on a historical note it took the German Luftwaffe to finally terminate Zither Banjo manufacturing in Birmingham. ... got to be a banjo joke there somewhere. Image of Birmingham in the Blitz.

In this day and age research into most subjects can start with the internet, but sometimes what is posted is simply perpetuating a myth. A classic case is John Clamp of Newcastle who AP Sharp stated in BMG “made only about 30 banjos in his whole lifetime”. This “word of mouth” comment has become history and a Clamp banjo was offered at auction, in NY in 2015 at several thousands of dollars because it was so rare and the AP Sharp comments were used to justify the valuation, nether the less is was a very nice example. A copy of a John Clamp price list was recently discovered which had over 30 combinations of pot sizes, stringing’s and styles, with bespoke instruments being made within 21 days from order. He also bought up several children on the proceeds of these “30 banjos” ...Draw your own conclusions, as we can now because of this wonderful research tool. clampbanjo.tripod.com

During the last decade of the 19th century there were 5 well respected manufacturers of Banjos, doing business between # 161 and #187 Tremont Street, Boston, a distance of about 750 ft between them. Pelton #161 Robinson #170 Cole #179 Gatcombe #181 Fairbanks #187 A little further into town at #86, part of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, was Thompson and Odell. The Church was made famous 30 year earlier when there, in 1867, Charles Dickens read from Pickwick Papers and a Christmas Carol in a 2-hour recital. T&O moved into # 523 Washington Street (parallel to Tremont Street) about the time of the 1893 fire when the Church burned down; Cole moved into #786 Washington Street a little further out of town, close to OR Chase. Is it any wonder that all these makers banjos bear striking similarities? they probably sat in the pub on a Friday night discussing their new ideas, playing their instruments. No doubt the different makers had specialities and other skills like engraving, plating and fret cutting, possibly subcontracted and surely not all of them were making the metal pots patented by O.R. Chase in 1882, where he was well established at #698 Washington Street. In 1856 Ira Chase and H Lincoln Chase of Chase Brothers and Co., published a book on patent ornamental woven or wrought iron railings, entrance gates, and window guards: Their “warerooms” were at 383 Washington Street. Was O. R. a son? With significant metal working skills was he capitalising on the latest fashion in musical instruments? Was the Chase manufacturing facility at #698?

1842 .. John Tyler was US President, slavery was not going to be abolished in the USA for another 23 years . 7 years earlier was the battle of Alamo in the Texas War for Independence, Charles Dickens was writing his American Notes: and the banjo had arrived in England through Liverpool. Earlier in 1834 reference to a banjo appeared in the Dublin Weekly Mail with the immortal line “ ‘ O! corn-stalks and Jews harps!” said Daemon after worrying on his seat during the .. overture by the orchestra; “Will they tune their banjos all night, and never get to playin?” 26th January 1839 The Leeds Times advertised The Royal Illusionists Address which included The Unequalled ANTI-FANDANGO-DANCE. Banjo jig and Jim Crow Jump Dance, by a "New Laid Egg". James Low had been performing this very same banjo/dance show in New York in March 1838. 26th February 1842 ER Harper, the American Comedian was performing at the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool in a production called The Court Jester, for 10 days. He is credited with writing “Jim Along Josey” in 1838, and later in his schedule he was on stage at the Queens Theatre Liverpool on the 22nd October 1842 playing his Louisiana Banjo Melodies, on his New- invented Banjo .. songs like Lucy Lucy Long and Jim along Josey .. as originally introduced by him on both sides of the Atlantic. In March 1842 JW Sweeny made the crossing from New York to Liverpool with The American Circus. Their first performance was also in the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool on 28th March. The show was made up of horse riding skills and gymnastic exercises interspersed with other performers. Sweeny’s role was to entertain the crowd during intervals and on Thursday 31st March 1842 “The Liverpool Mail” reported .. A company of equestrians arrived from the United States …. We have only space to notice the racy and original negro singing of Mr Sweeny, who accompanied himself on the banjo, or mandolin. His instrumentation is excellent and his self-possession, while the house was convulsed with laughter …, was irresistibly comic ... encored three times. ER Harper was an established comedian who wrote for and played the banjo, and bought the banjo into the UK one month before Sweeny. However Sweeny was part of a major tour and was primarily a banjo performer and dancer and gained faster recognition on the instrument than Harper. Clearly they got to see each other’s performances as they we both in Liverpool at the same time at the beginning and end of 1842, and played some of the same tunes. The rhetoric in the advertisements for their subsequent performances grows through the year as they both try to claim to be “the first”, and they were by no means the only ones performing the music of the American Negro. However, it now appears that James Low (Uncle Jim Lowe?) was 3 years ahead of them both. Soon after the end of American Civil War (1865) intensive development of the banjo started in both the USA and England. In London William Temlett (Snr) had established a workshop in 1864, and he patented the idea of a closed back banjo with a suspended sound box in 1869. The biggest influence on the development of the banjo from the European side came from the Zither. The Morning Post London May 1849 records ... Max Homeier the celebrate Zither performer was resident in the Strand and available to be booked by Gentry and Nobility for Parties, Dejeuners and Concerts. an instrument emanating from the Tyrol region (of the Alps) “appears to be a sort of guitar with metallic strings laid flat upon a table" 24th Nov 1883 in The Era, Alf Wood, Negro Comedian, banjo Soloist is sole agent for The Temlett Banjo. The Severn Oaks Chronical in December 1892 reported that Mr Arthur Doody received a well-earned encore for his zither banjo solo “Home Sweet Home” The zither banjo created a totally different type of sound with its steel strings, closed back and geared tuners and in 9 years the description "zither banjo" had come into general use. Having identified there was a clear difference in sound on 14th Sept 1897 W Covill Cheltenham advertised WE Temlett high class Zither and ordinary Banjos. At its peak Arthur Wilmshurst was consistently producing the best quality zither banjos; his metal fretwork cover to the wooden pot kept the pot perfectly circular so the action never suffered, he still used the neck clamp (as used on ordinary banjos ..) on the internal perch pole (dowel stick), a thick ebony fret board and laminated peg head.

Well built in Philadelphia (note the rosewood pot) around 1886 this 130 year old Samuel Stewart Piccolo travelled the world and ended up in the year of the 800th anniversary of the Signing of the Magna Carta, in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK. Time for a bit of timely UK history .. Magna Carta was the first statement of human rights in World History and the document was signed at Runnymede on the River Thames on 15th June 1215. Only 4 towns are specifically mentioned in Magna Cart (as being excluded from the rights it imparted) all were places that were strategically important to King John in 1215. Lancaster controlling the crossing of the River Ribble going North up the West coast of England, Nottingham crossing the River Trent going North up the East coast, Boulogne for crossing to Normandy (France) and Wallingford controlling access over the River Thames to London from the South. Wallingford was also the home of Agatha Christie for 40 years and she is buried in a local churchyard in the Village of Cholsey. Lastly of interest to those on the newer side of the pond is that Judge William Blackstone wrote his “Commentaries on the Laws of England” while living in Wallingford, completed and published in 1769. The “Commentaries” played their part in the drafting of the American Constitution. Back to the Piccolo .. it left Philadelphia and travelled west to Kohler and Chase in San Francisco, a large retailer and distributor of quality musical instruments. Kohler and Chase started as a toy and music shop opened by Andrew Kohler in 1850. Quincy Chase was born in 1830 in Maine but the attraction of the Gold Rush saw him take the six month boat trip round the Horn to San Francisco in 1853 where he joined Andrew Kohler’s business as a clerk. He soon became a partner and by 1860 business was booming such that they had to move to bigger and bigger premises three times, over the next 20 years. Kohler and Chase were large distributors of pianos and organs and The Robinson Piano Company had set up in China and Hong Kong. Walter Robinson was born in Liverpool UK in 1860 and became a merchant plying his interest in musical instruments between the UK, US , Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. Interestingly though the first record of the Robinson Piano Company occurs in jury records in 1899 a full 13 years after our Piccolo was made. .... and then it travelled by what ever route 25,000 miles or more, who knows, and ends being sold in the UK.

... except Samuel S Stewart was not a well man. He had led the progress of the 5 string banjo to its peak, both as a piece of well-developed engineering and a work of art, which was also accepted across the social spectrum as a versatile instrument. He had replaced the paddle peg head with a design that was to be copied by all the best makers from Washburn and Luscomb in the US to Dallas and Essex in the UK. The art of heel carving had reached its peak reflecting the developing art nouveau style of the period without being superfluous, and the quality of inlay work perhaps bettered in Boston, but marginally, were his legacy .. as after he died the quality could not be maintained and the business faltered. The Stewart Clan of 1898 included the 20th Century, Special Thoroughbred and Banjeaurine.

1873 two Johns, Dallas & Brewster, were making banjos in Oxford Street, London but after a few years they split and Dallas went out on his own. Brewster was noted in 1883 by SS Stewart as the sole distributor of the latter’s banjos following a spat with RJ Ward of Liverpool who Stewart appeared to accuse of copying his banjos. About 1885 Lyon and Healy started making the Washburn range of banjos and one writer quipped that they allowed Stewart to do all the work and then just copied his banjos. Also about the same time John Dallas, now working out of The Strand, London started making his own “Universal Favorite” model with the name spelt the American way without the “U” in favourite. For all we know Dallas was buying in necks? Check out the six peg heads here, two each by Stewart, Dallas and Washburn (Lyon & Healy) .. Who really was copying who? Tall stories and tailpieces The end of the Victorian era heralded the ten years during which the five string banjo peaked in its development, before it met its nemesis that was to become the 4 string or tenor banjo, which itself peaked another twenty years later. It was not alone in the pre 1st World War period when technology of all sorts was being developed from the 1st real telephone, aviation, motor vehicles; and massive projects in construction such as the Panama Canal and the fateful Titanic were being undertaken. Tailpieces had been the butt of many a fancy claim in a patent application and many did nothing to enhance the instrument, often the opposite. That was until it was discovered that volume and response could be significantly enhanced if the strings could impart more down pressure on the bridge. This Paramount tailpiece from the '20s embodies eactly that as well as an adjustable quick release catch surely copied from some 1st WW piece of armament.

From the cubby box of a JA Turner "Alvey" 5 string, how about this little collection, probably cost about six and thruppence ha'penny in the 1920's... not sure how the John Grey "Dulcetta" guitar slide fits in! Were they used on Banjos? Perhaps the patent had run out? One of the exciting things about buying anything at auction, on line, is finding out what you actually get for your money when you take delivery. Banjos are special cases in that some makers only put their marks somewhere in the pot and these are sometimes only revealed when taking off the resonator. You have paid the price hoping it was made by the maker you thought, and also, no one else knew better. I bought a mixed lot recently that included a banjo-mandolin, in a nice case. I took little notice of it at the time but taking it out of the case revealed hardware on the back. In these two pictures the technology in the un-named banjo-mandolin, almost certainly made in Birmingham in the 1920’s, (The neck clamp and the ridge in the heel are typical of Matthew) goes back at least to the SS Stewart some 30 years earlier? In the case of the banjo-madolin the neck tensioner goes through the pot rather than under it as in the case of the Stewart. For tailpieces .. Michael Holmes article on Mugwumps Antique/Vintage Banjos at auction Collectors Weekly Banjoleles on David Sims Ukulele Corner Hank Schwartz site on the history of Fairbanks

Two top-of-the-line instruments from two top makers plying their trades across the pond. The Chicago-made Washburn model 422 turned up in a country auction in Somerset, England with an estimate of £50-80. (it made £840 including commission). The pot had been reinstalled upside down !! in a vain attempt to lower the action, which resulted in some of the hook threads being too short... The result? Failure when the nut ran out of thread while the skin was being tightened. Only two of the original bone Maltese Cross tuners survived. Now restored to its former glory (tuners excepted and awaiting a few hooks) in Bob Smakula’s shop with steel strings, for playing. It’s the second one we have seen recently at auction in the UK, the other turned up in Birmingham in 2013. It's worth taking top instruments to experienced restorers as these early Washburns had a wooden peg under the heel inlay through into the dowel stick that has to be drilled out before a neck reset can be done. What would the end result have been if your restorer didn't know that? The 2nd, an early Clifford Essex made by Alfred Weaver at 15 Grafton Street, W London was discovered sitting in an amazing music shop six miles north of the White House in Washington DC, “House of Musical Traditions”. Next to it on the wall was an equally interesting fretless Brewster with his own version of the “Dueling banjos” inlay again crafted in London (see below). The style of inlays on the Essex look to have been influenced by SS Stewart, the heel is typically Cole (not Weaver) in style, and the leaves, acorns and flowers on the Washburn sat comfortably within the art nouveau style. The Engravers Art .. "dueling banjos" take 2 A closeup of the Washburn with brass wire detailing and the Brewster original (?) on white metal (if it is not hallmarked then its not sterling silver) of the Richard Spencer "dueling banjos" This rare early Dallas gem #2445 with an 8" pot, 26 1/4" scale surfaced as a box of bits on e-bay.