The August 1910 issue of “The Crescendo” reported that “Dalton MacGee and Leslie Uncless , both of whom are teachers of the banjo at Syracuse, New York, are now making banjos”. The types of banjo which they are making are of original style and are for use in concert work”. Nothing further is known of these makers or their instruments. According to Partee this style banjo had a tremendous volume and brilliance of tone (although predictably somewhat metallic) as was used extensively by such artists as Cha. E Latshan and “Joe” Hart. MacCord retired from banjo making in 1890 and bequeathed some of his experimental banjos to Partee who in turn presented the two oldest instruments to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where they were displayed in a glass case labelled “Banjos of the 19thC”. Dalton MacGee Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

…. was born in Twickenham, Middlesex and was living with his father there in 1851. His father James (b 1802) was listed as a Professor of Music as was James W, aged 20. By 1861 he was married to Elizabeth (1829), had three daughters and was a Banjoist living at Burnham House, Paradise Road Twickenham. He music business was growing and by the time he was 40 he had expanded into a shop, he was employing 3 people including his daughter who was working in his shop and his household included a further 4 sons, a servant and a nursemaid. He was making and repairing instruments as well as selling sheet music and books. By 1871 he had moved to 8 Hill Street Richmond with a household of 11. His first wife then died and he married Emma who was half his age (25) in 1881 when his business and shop was at its peak with 5 employees. That marriage did not last and he married another Elizabeth fathering 2 more daughters. By age 70 his household had reduced and with his wife, one daughter and a servant he was running his shop and living at 18 Hill Street Richmond on Thames, Middlesex. Images courtesy of Richard Evans estate James William Etherington 1831 - 1904 next maker

Thompson & Odell Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker ... was founded by Ira Odell in 1872 who went into partnership the following year with C W Thompson at 121 Court Street, Boston, Mass. In 1874 they moved to 86 Tremont Street and relocated several more times into Washington Street as the business grew. They were instrument manufacturers and music dealers making a range of of products both under their own name and under the "Artist”,"Crescent" ,and " Luscomb " brand names, also making for other manufacturers and distributors including Washburn . The company was incorporated in 1891, and Odell retired from the business in 1892 but his son replaced him, Thompson died in 1903 and the company was forced into liquidation in 1905.

In February 1914 J E Dallas moved to 202 High Holborn and by the late 1920's the banjos and zither-banjos bearing the company's name were truly mass-produced instruments and started to bear the trade name of "Jedson." With the outbreak of World War II, J E Dallas ceased to make banjos but in 1947 they started to produce, in small quantities, the inexpensive banjos which have been sold by music shops throughout the country. These also bear the "Jedson" trade mark but are in no way comparable to the pre-war instruments bearing the Jedson name It was in 1963 that the Houghton works in Birmingham were closed down and George Houghton set up workshops for the Dallas company at Bexleyheath, Kent and it was from here that most of the post-war banjos bearing the Dallas name have been made. Pictures of Jedson mid 1930's 5 string banjo Jedson .. JE Dallas & Son next maker

next maker .. was born in St Saviours Southwark, Surrey ( which was incorporated into the county of London on 1st April 1889 ). In 1864 William Temlett established a workshop for making banjos at 95 Union Street, London, S.E., with F. Roberts in charge of production. ( a typo on the original British Banjo Makers web site, and now a lot of others, has this date incorrectly as 1846) At first, the banjos produced were smooth-arm 6- and 7-string instruments with crude deep wooden hoops of 12 in. and 13 in. diameter and fitted with not more than a dozen heavy brackets and guitar type machine heads. A single machine head was fitted at the side of the neck for the octave string. On November 20, 1869, Temlett was granted a patent for his first closed-back banjo which can rightly be considered the forerunner of the zither-banjo. This instrument had seven strings and Temlett called his revolutionary new instrument "the suspended sound board banjo." (The principle was used in later years in other banjos, notably the "Vegavox." ) In the 1871 census he was listed as a concertina maker! By 1876 W. Temlett was making early versions (with very little metalwork in their construction) of what was later to become known as the "zither-banjo" and after Cammeyer had launched his instrument with this name, Temlett called himself "the pioneer of the zither banjo . A feature of a lot of Temlett's zither banjos was the prolific use of mother-of-pearl inlays. He used decorations down each side of the fingerboard and between each fret and even round the upper edge of the hoop. When the demand for zither banjos increased to such phenomenal proportions round about 1880, Temlett moved his factory to larger premises at 44 Southwark Bridge Road and there made the thousands of instruments bearing his name and the many hundreds of others sold under various retailers' names. In 1888 he was granted a patent for a banjo hoop which bulged out with a curve around the bottom; the tension bolts passing through holes in the upper part of this curved bulge and the nuts concealed within the bottom of the bulge. (This idea was later used by other makers, e.g. Gibson in America and Merriman in England.) Although zither-banjos account for the majority of the instruments made by W. Temlett, he also made some worthwhile open - back five string banjos. Early in 1900 he suffered a paralytic stroke from which he never fully recovered. He died on May 2, 1904, in Guy's hospital of Bright's disease and cerebral haemorrhage. William Temlett's son, William Ernest , had started work in his father's factory in early boyhood but left at the age of thirty to form his own business. Born in 1865, W. E. Temlett left school at the age of 14 and entered his father's factory and it was not long before he was appointed manager. But as he grew older, disagreements with his father became more frequent and in 1895 he left to form his own business. He set up a workshop at 29 Charlotte Street, Blackfriars, London, S.E., and for some years keen rivalry waged between father and son. Pictures courtesy of Brown Dog Banjos William Temlett Snr. 1841 to 1904

The Slingerland Banjo Company was established in Chicago around 1915 by Henry Heanon. By the 1920s they were manufacturing a wide range of instruments including banjos, banjo-mandolins, banjo-ukuleles, guitars and mandolins, under the "May-Bell" label, from premises at 1815 Orchard Street, Chicago, Illinois. The company later changed its name to the Slingerland Banjo and Drum Company and subsequently, in the 1930's, to the Slingerland Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company. The Slingerland name is currently owned by Gibson. Pictures of MayBell courtesy of Intermountain Guitar & Banjo Pictures of banjo-uke courtesy of John Kay Slingerland next maker

....Samuel Bowley Barnes (b 1872 in Wimborne, Dorset) and Albert Edward Mullins (b 1873 in Bristol) were boyhood friends in their home town of Wimborne where they worked together at the local grocers shop. As young men they decide to join forces to become dealers in musical instruments; mainly selling banjos and mandolins in which they were particularly interested. Being players of no mean ability their public appearances helped them to sell their goods and soon they were despatching instruments all over the country, also because of their advertising and the launching (in February 1894) of their monthly fretted Instrument magazine called “The 'Jo." ("The 'Jo" title was changed to “The Troubadour" after a couple of years.) Both their sets of parents had died during the 1880's and while Mullins was living with his brother in law in 1891 neither appear on the 1901 census. They started to sell their "own" make of banjo but these were made for them by J. G. Abbott , W. E. Temlett . Windsor , Matthew , etc. - the usual makers "to the trade" at that time. It was in 1897 they patented their “mute attachment" which was fitted to B. & M. zither-banjos and worked from under the vellum. At the end of 1900 they moved to London and established themselves at Rathbone Place, off London's Oxford Street, as a wholesale house in all musical instruments and merchandise and, soon after, started their own workshops at Harrow, Middlesex. which at first were under the supervision of John G Abbott. During the dance-band boom they marketed- their "Lyratone" banjos, plectrum banjos and tenor-banjo which enjoyed considerable popularity. A feature of these instruments was the all-metal construction of the hoops. In 1924 Barnes was granted a patent simplifying the tensioning of the skin on a zither banjo through a redesigned tension ring. They ceased making banjos soon after the outbreak of World War II. the instruments branded "B. & M." sold from about 1965, have been made for them in Germany. Barnes 1872-1932 & Mullins 1873-1954 Barnes & Mullins No.1 Perfect with the adjustable dowl stick, made by Windsor Next maker

The Fender Co. of Santa Ana California did not make any banjos until the latter part of 1965 when they acquired the plant and manufacturing rights of Gariepy Banjos , a firm which had been conducted by the banjo maker Art Gariepy of Long Beach Cal. “Fender” banjos are well made showing the craftsmanship of their former maker. Fender Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

A patent issued to H C Middlebrook in 1891 regarding "improvements" to the way the neck is attached to the pot and a new fretting system, formed the basis of the Lion company. In an advertisement in the Sept-Oct 1885 issue of “The Cadenza” the Lion Banjo Manufacturing Co., of Rock Rapids, Iowa, USA announced “A great revolution in banjo and guitar making . Many new features .. sloping frets, hollow hoop, new tailpiece but no side peg” and “ An entirely new method of attaching neck to hoop”. A photograph in the advertisement shows a banjo with the octave peg located in the peg head; 5th string apparently being carried from the 5th fret through a zither type banjo tunnel to the peg head. However unlike the English made "zither" banjos the 5th string emerges in the centre of the peg head rather than to the bass side. The company which also manufactured guitars and mandolins exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 Images courtesy of Carl Miller Lion next maker

.. was a instrument retailer/maker in New York in the last decade of the 19th C, who's banjo's were probably made by Buckbee . He was issued a patent for a tail piece and around 1895 the company changed its name to the Metropolitan Musical Instrument Co. They marketed both 5, 6 & 7 string banjo's fretted or flush fret under the "Celebrated Benary" name engraved on a plate on the heel. 7 string flush fret Celebrated Benary Robert H Benary next maker

In the 1920’s The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of Cincinnati, Ohio advertised the “Howard” tenor-banjo outfit for $49.00. The well-made professional instrument which was supplied complete with a fully shaped case was made for the company by the Fred Gretsch Mfg. Co. In advertisements for this tenor-banjo it was also stated that the outfit could also be furnished “in five-string or plectrum models” to order. Pictures courtesy of Michael Powers Howard next maker

In 1893 Clifford Essex and Alfred D. Cammeyer formed a partnership with offices and teaching studios at 59 Piccadilly, London. At first, the banjos and zither-banjos they sold under the brand name of "Essex & Cammeyer" where made for them by Temlett , Weaver , Wilmshurst and Windsor . In 1895 they were appointed UK distributors for William A Cole (who had dissolved their business with AC Fairbanks in 1892) and then, in early in 1896, they opened their own workshops at 13 Greethen Street, Soho, and were soon employing fourteen workmen to make banjos and zither-banjos. The partnership was dissolved in 1900 when no more "Essex & Cammeyer" instruments were produced. Zither pictures courtesy of John Dukes Imported Cole pictures courtesy of Musicalstash , interesting to note the earlier Windsor "Lyre" tailpiece used on this banjo .. not Cole but possibly original as widely used in England at the time. This model is from their lower end "Boston" range as opposed to the higher end "Eclipse" range. Essex & Cammeyer next maker