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Item List Fred J Bacon 1871 to 1948 Read More

< Back Thomas William Bacon 1841 to 1918 ... was born in Bethnal Green where he married a local girl. By 1871 he was living at 15 Saville Place, Lambeth, Surrey and was recorded as a musician with three children. Ten years laster he had moved to Endell Street where he was clearly had a good business, making good quality well finished instruments, as he had seven children and employed a servant. During most of his life he preferred to be known by his middle name William. Earlier banjos have the address as 26 ENDELL St LONDON W.C. and later banjos omit the W.C. Early models included a gut strung 6 string fretless with five friction pegs in the head and a 5th string peg. Later models included a slotted peg head with tunnelled 5th string and with the end of the perchpole fed through the pot where the tailpiece was attached to it. Hi later models can be rocognised by his signature mother or pearl inlay which was a large dot surrounded by 4 small dots .. see peghead and 14th fret marker Previous Next

... see Joseph Riley Pictures courtesy of Skip Sail Riley - Baker next maker

The zither-banjos stamped on the heel "Made by J. Newel, 402 High Street, Manor Park" S London were in fact made by Windsors . They were the standard "shoulder" model made by Windsor, sold at the same price, but without the Windsor name on them minus the '“Castle" nameplate in the centre of the back of the hoop. Newell was a successful player and teacher. J Newel Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

In the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC there is a banjo made by Fred Mather of New York City, in 1860. It has incised lines on the fingerboard to indicate frets with lettering at the frets giving the names of the notes to be found there. The instrument is fitted with machine heads with a single one fitted at the side of the neck for the fifth string. The hoop is fitted with twenty brackets . Nothing else is known of Fred Mather and it is not known if he was a commercial maker or not. Fred Mather Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

Born in St Pancras, London he never knew his father and by the time he was 15 he was working as a messenger boy. Aged 25 he was just married and Landlord of the Waterloo pub in High Street, Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire. He soon moved back to London where he was working as a musical instrument repairer and ten years later was living at 14 Bolton Street Lambeth with a son and 6 daughters all under 10 years old. He flourished in the early 1870s, both as a maker of banjos with both he and his wife as teachers of the instrument. His banjos at that time were typical of the period: deep (5 in.) hoop of wood (with undulant bottom edge), wide unfretted neck, push-in pegs, and six or eight heavy straining brackets. By 1882 he has premises in Duke Street at the peak of his career and with his wife they are listed as “Professors of the Banjo” In 1885 he was granted a patent for a metal hoop for the banjo "with an annular groove in it to receive the tension bolts and to which the handle (neck) is attached." In section this hoop was something like the figure 5 minus the tail. By 1891 he moved to South London and was living at 10 Mill Lane Streatham and ten years later he was a music teacher living with son in law at 95 Amesbury Avenue Streatham. Henry John James Spratt 1836 - 1920 Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

In "The Banjo World" of May 1894 a classified advert appeared offering for sale a 5-string "C" banjo by Emerson of New York. No details of’ this maker or his products have been discovered. Pictures courtesy of Jerry McHugh D Emerson next maker

Leslie Uncless ... as teacher of the banjo in Syracuse,, New York, was mentioned as a maker of banjos along with Dalton MacGee in the August 1910 issue of “The Crescendo” but nothing further been discovered about him or his activities. Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

... of Gloucester, was a banjo enthusiast who made (and sold privately) several conventional banjos when he was a pupil of S.E.Turner of Cheltenham. In 1927 he conceived the idea of making an all wood instrument. Basically, the hoop of this banjo (which he patented in 1928) consisted of a series of blocks glued together in a ring and turned to a section similar to that of a bell. A metal band was fitted under the"shelf" of the hoop to act as a wearing plate for the nuts of the tention brackets, thus eliminatingthe neccessity for the conventional shoes. Mr Merriman sent his prototype to Windsor of Birmingham who made about half a dozen instruments to his design. They were sold privately. In 1932 about the same number of instruments were made for Mr Merriman by J.G.Abbot and he advertised them in the June 1932 "BMG". When these were sold Mr Merriman retired from the field of commericial banjo making. In later years Harold was the Landlord at the Royal Exchange Public House in Hartpury Gloucester. Pictures countesy of John Craze of a banjo made by Merriman in 1943 while serving in Kenya. He and John's father Frank Craze played with the Phil Barker Banjo Boys from Gloucester. Harold Thomas Merriman 1903 -1977 next maker

... was a high quality instrument maker in Philladelphia, Pennsylvania in the last quarter of the 19th C. While he built instruments and competed with the quality of S S Stewart he did not make anything like the volume. images courtesy of Mark Ralston Joseph Ricketts next maker