Search this site

... was in partnership with G R and J H Martin in 1872 trading as Martin, Pollmann & Co. but by 1880 Pollman was an established manufacturer and importer in New York. His wide interests in all types of fretted and automated instruments led to him being granted a patent for a harp attachment for a guitar. He is best known however for his long necked, flat mandolin bodied 5 string banjos and 6 string guitars. Trading out of 70-72 Franklin Street in 1904 his business was incorporated and his two sons Edwin and Arthur joined the board. The following year the business moved to 91-93 Mercer Street by which time their range had expanded to include band instruments, violins and accordeons, but the company soon went bancrupt, the whole stock being purchased and sold off by Buegeleisen & Jacobsen. Pictures courtesy of Intermountain Guitar and Banjo August Pollmann next maker

This maker or retailer was active in New York City during the last 20 years of the 19th Century. As the business grew it became Strebe Brothers. The two originally gut strung examples below show there origins or influences to be from main US wholesale manufacturer of the late 19th C, JH Buckbee , also NY based. Strebe could well have been maker who fitted their preferred inlays, skins, tail pieces and strings to standard Buckbee parts and then branded them as their own. The later "palm tree" courtesy of the Estate of Richard Evans. Images of the earlier converted fretless courtesy of Jerry Mc Hugh The gallery picture of the back of the dowel stick shows the use of roman numerals rather than number stamps, to match the pot and neck suggesting earlier business practises and/or lower production levels. However what is interesting is the 3rd Strebe mark! on the back dowel stick which suggest that Strebe at least assembled the banjos as there is no reason for another maker to stamp the mark 3 times on the dowel stick. It also looks like it was stamped hot after the finish was put on. HF Strebe & Strebe Bros. next maker

An unfretted banjo marked "W. Hardy of Lincoln" as the maker was passed through A.P. Sharpe’s hands but no details of this maker details have been found. Being unfretted indicates the instrument was made about 1880. The recently discovered maker Williamson also of Lincoln made fretless banjos in a very similar genre to Hardy and they were no doubt contemporaries although the neck of this example is made of mahogany. Images courtesy of AE Dowse & Son, Sheffield W Hardy next maker

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

John Clamp Snr 1833 - 1907 next maker .. born in Durham, Northumberland was a cabinet maker who in 1881 was living at 8 Sandyford Square in the centre of Newcastle, with five daughters and a son. By 1891 he was registered as a Banjo Manufacturer working from home and 1898 he had moved to 22 Simpson Street in the St Andrews district still making banjos at home and by 1901 his 24 year old daughter Cecilia Clamp was a "Teacher of Banjo" and performer. No doubt her students provided a ready market for his banjos. His son John had by now married but carried on with his father’s original profession as a Cabinet Maker in the Tyne & Wear shipyards. Among the banjos he made were ornately inlaid, high quality instruments with carved heels and heads. Initially fretless and subsequently fretted. His early range of flush fret banjos across three styles were available in over 120 different options of pot size, scale length, materials and 5, 6 and 7 strings. They were named the Trick , Drawing Room and Stage models with pot sizes from 9-13" and priced between £3.0.0 and 12 Guineas. He had been a banjo manufacturer for 25 years by the time he died and initially with a family of six to support. Hence the evidence is, contrary to the AP Sharpe article in BMG that he "made only 30 banjos in his lifetime", that he made many hundreds of banjos and it is likely that what was said was "30 banjos per year during his lifetime." It would appear he actually made 550+ during his lifetime. Images courtesy of Gene Parsons at STRINGBENDER PRODUCTS . Clamp fretless images courtesy of Alec Somerville

, .. of Stockwell, London flourished from 1880 to 1912. during which time he advertised himself as a "Professional Banjo Maker" and sole manufacturer of the “lmproved Eureka Banjo." Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? A J Shepherd next maker

was born in Kentish Town, London in 1859 William James Clifford Essex. In 1882 he disolved the Herbert & Co. Wine Merchant partnership, he had with James Herbert. 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 but early in 1896 they opened their own workshops at 13 Greek Street, Soho, and were soon employing fourteen workmen to make banjos and zither-banjos for them. Clifford Essex dissolved his partnership with Cammayer in 1900 he formed his own firm at 15a Grafton Street, off New Bond Street, London. W. and instruments bearing. the name Clifford Essex Co." were put on the market. At first all the banjos were made for Clifford Essex by Spencer , Weaver, Langham (in London) and Houghton (of Birmingham) -but in 1904 he started his own workshops at The Oval, Kensington, with Alfred Dare as foreman. When Richard Spencer died in 1915, Clifford Essex bought his plant and stock and took his key makers into his employ. Although most of the CIifford Essex banjos sold in the early days were made in the Clifford Essex workshops, many he were still made by the above-mentioned outside makers; notably Richard Spencer. The Weaver- made banjos were made to Weaver's own design although they were sold with the Clifford Essex label on them. It should be emphasised that every Clifford Essex banjo (except the "Popular" model) was hand-made and each instrument individually assembled which often accounts for slight variations in models. and by then only their cheapest model (The "Popular') was made outside their own work-shops by Houghton of Birmingham. In February 1936 the firm became a private limited company and the title changed to "Clifford-Essex & Son Ltd.”. Soon after the outbreak of World War II the manufacture of banjos (and other instruments) was greatly reduced owing,, to shortage of materials and the military call-up of workmen. When the firm went into liquidation in 1942 manufacture ceased. The new company. with the title "Clifford Essex Music Co. Ltd." has made a few -special" banjos since 1945 and these bear the initials "C.E." in mother-of pearl inlaid into the peghead. From the cheapest to the dearest (£3.10.0. to £60) Clifford Essex banjos carried the following model names : Popular" "Clipper", "Imperial", "C.E. Special", Boudoir Grand", "Professional" (the only 12 in. hoop model), "Regal", "X.X.'Special" (later called, Concert Grand"), "Paravox" (an instrument designed on the 'Vegavox" lines with an 11 in. vellum, "Paragon", "New Paragon", "Paragon Artist" and "Paragon de Luxe" (the last two being gold plated). In addition tile firm produced three grades of zither-banjo: "Grade 111" (the cheapest), "Grade 11" and "Grade 1”. To enable an owner of a Clifford Essex banjo to "date" his instrument, one can tell by the address in conjunction with the firm's title. 1900 to 1936 15a Grafton Street, London W, 1936 to 1942 90 Shaftesbury Ave., . 1942 to 1957 8 New Compton St., 1957 on 20 Earlham Street. Additional informtion .. cliffordessex.net Clifford Essex .. 1859 to 1946 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 closely associated with the fretted instrument industry for over forty years. He played the banjo with the Moore & Burgess Minstrels and The Stavordales but was more widely known for his long partnership with Arthur Stanley Sr. The team of Stanley & Greenop toured every Music Hall in the United Kingdom from 1903 more than once and even did a tour of South Africa. The partnership broke up just prior to the outbreak of World War I. At the turn of the century, Norton Greenop designed and sold the first banjos to bear his name as maker but these instruments were made for him by John E. Dallas . They included several unusual features and were a cross between a banjo and a zither banjo with a lot of metal in the hoop. The tone was inclined to be metallic. In 1926 John Alvey Turner Ltd. were agents for his "Tonetube" banjos, plectrum- banjos and tenor banjos. Again this was a zither-banjo type of instrument, the brackets passing through circular tubes which were said to add tone to the instrument, "functioning as the sound post of the violin. Instead of the hoop being enclosed at the back (ala zither banjo) it had a concave "receiving pan" insert "to project the tone forwards." At this time Norton Greenop was carrying on a music business at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and conducting his own dance band. He died on December 27th, 1930, after playing at a dance. Images courtesy of Glen Morris Norton Greenop 1868 to 1930 next maker