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

Following a tour of Englad with his brother George (b 1857) the African-American James Bohee established a teaching studio in Coventry Street, London, in 1882. He first sold S. S. Stewart banjos at exorbitant prices to his pupils but before long he decided it was more profitable to sell his "own" banjos. These had a 12 inch hoop, plain nickel-silver, fingerboard without any fret markings, and push-in ivory pegs. When the Prince of Wales, who was soon to become King Edward VII, took lessons from him, the banjo craze hit British High Society. It is said he was a shrewd business man and asked as much as £50 for one of his banjos, a truly great price when one realises the highest-priced instruments at that time were 9 or 10 guineas. Bohee banjos were branded "Champion" and Alfred Weaver made the majority of them, although some were said to have been made by Arthur Tilley of Surbiton. Bohee died in 1897 but his brother liver on to 1930. James Bohee ... 1844 to 1897 Do you have a banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

... founded the company in Schönbach which was in Germany in 1887. He became the largest manufacturer of string instruments in the country and his two sons Josef and Walter joined the company just after the 1st WW taking the Hofner brand's reputation round the world. After the turbulence of World War II the company moved in 1950 to Bubenreuth in Western Germany. Karl Höfner Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

Kohler & Son were established about 1780 and in 1790 were based at Whitcomb Street, London. By 1835 they were manufacturers and contractors for all military instruments to the War Office, the British Army, Navy and India office. In 1851 John Kohler (b 1804 Middlesex) was manufacturing musical instruments and living at 35 Henrietta Street with his wife Elizabeth, four children and two servants. 10 years later he was employing 6 men and 4 boys at the same address but was now living next door at #33 with two more children. They manufactured for other specialist suppliers including Harper’s Slide Trumpets and McFarland’s Cornopeans and won prizes for their brass instruments. They moved from 35 Henrietta Street, Convent Garden to 116 Victoria Street, Westminster about 1881. In 1899 they also had offices round the corner in in 12A Gt Chapel Street London. Then in 1902 to 167 Edbury Street, Eaton Square and by 1914 had moved to 183-5 Piccadilly. During the banjo boom they imported what appear to be Buckbee instruments marked “Hero trademark” yetcertainly had the skills to manufacture their own. Images courtesy of Richard Evans Kohler & Son next maker

John Alvey Turner .. 1885 to date next maker .. established his first general music shop in the City of London in 1885 and from the early days sold all types of fretted instruments, including his "own make" banjos and zither banjos. The firm has never maintained its own workshops; all high specification instruments bearing the name of John Alvey Turner having been made for them by Temlett , Windsor, Wilmshurst , Dallas , Cammeyer , J. G. Abbott and from 1945 until his retirement in 1956, Sidney Young .

... of 23/25 Constitution Hill Birmingham were established in 1851 as Musical Instrument Merchants, Patentees and Manufacturers." In 1894 they had a stand at the Birmingham Industrial Exhibition on which they displayed and advertised themselves as being agents for Windsor banjos and zither-banjos. Following the success of this Exhibition, they engaged Olly Oakley to demonstrate Windsor instruments in their store. ( In March 1892 Windsor teamed up with Arthur J.Taylor, a prominent Birmingham teacher who taught Olly Oakley, who was working in Taylor's shop at this time. This employment came to an abrupt end and Oakley went to work for Joseph Riley where he sold Windsor & Taylor banjos ). They appear to have started to manufacture their own banjos and zither-banjos a year later and in 1896 filed a patent for an improved zither-banjo, "the inner hoop, or hoop proper, having, outwardly projecting lugs round the bottom edge, which rest on corresponding inwardly projecting lugs on the outer hoop or casing." In the same patent they also included the specification of making, the necks of banjos and like instruments, hollow. In 1897 the firm was advertising its "Riley-Baker Perfected Banjo" in which the hoop was "stiftened or reinforced by an internal annular flange or horizontal feather, which is directed internally from the inside walls , at a point rarther abovce the middle line of the hoop; which is made of two diameters, the upper part being the smaller" The instrument comprised many other improvements which included a tailpiece which was perfected by Grover some years later. The Riley- Baker zither-banjos and the firm’s “Mikado” banjos (a feature of which was the amount of aluminium used in their construction) were widely advertised and John Pidoux was signed up to demonstrate them for the company, in which he played a teaching and advisory role for a few years. John Pidoux played a Riley-Baker zither –banjo at a Will C Peper concert at the St. Martin in the Fields Town Hall, London in May 1898 but the tone of the instrument was said by a critic to be “disappointing”. In 1901, the firms “Jubilee Year” they announced that they had 2000 banjos in stock! .. but they discontinued making banjos and zither-banjos three years later in 1904. Pictures courtesy of John Jukes, .. also see Riley-Baker This Riley, pictures courtesy of Clay Mileson shows the influence of the Stewart Special Thoroughbred on the decoration and carving. Joseph Riley 1831 - 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 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 1893 started making mandolins with a carved front and back in a small room over a shop in Main Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA and such beautiful works of art were his instruments that he had no difficulty in selling them. A true craftsman he took pride in the production of the revolutionary mandolins he fashioned with loving care. Some 450 miles away in Rochester New York an enthusiastic teacher of the mandolin names L A Williams had been buying Gibson mandolins by mail to sell to his pupils but could not get enough instruments to meet his demands. In the summer of 1902 Mr Williams travelled to Kalamazoo and after lengthy discussions with Gibson tool a leading part in the promotion of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Co. with the sole aim of increasing output. Sylvo Reams was appointed secretary and general manager. Bigger premises were acquired and woodworking craftsmen taken on to assist Orville. Under Reams’ guidance the company grew and flourished and with Williams in charge of advertising and promotion the products of the firm became more and more popular and well known the world over, but Reams died on 5th January 1917. Gibson, a genius at devising and manufacturing the unusual turned his attention to the banjo early in 1900; his main objective at the time being to add strength to the hoop of the banjo. In Boston, Mass (a hive of industry as far as the banjo was concerned) “tone rings” were being developed and launched along with various devices for improving both the necks and the hoops . Gibson devised an all wood hoop with a “shelf”, under which a metal “bracket band” was housed. Business boomed and in July the company opened its new $75,000 factory at 500 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo, but less than six years later he had to move to number 900 to what was claimed to be the fine s tans most up-to-date equipped factory of any in the industry at the time. For its “designer and acoustical engineer” the company has Lloyd a Loar a musician of the highest rank. He had studied harmony and theory and the physics of music at several American colleges and was a graduate in Physics, Geometry and Mechanics. His was the guiding hand behind the Gibson instruments for many years until his death in 1943. The next major development in the company’s banjos took place in 1922 when the “Gibson Tone Projector” was produced. This was a device, it was claimed “actually projects the tone” which resonators do not accomplish”. A year later LA Williams, who had done so much to make the company what is was, resigned due to ill health. Unlike most banjo makers of the period the early Gibson banjos were fitted with machine heads and not pegs. The next innovation was the famous “Mastertone” banjos and tenor-banjos, fitted with the normal type of resonator. At first the tenor banjos were made to a 19” scale – “just short enough to allow the average hand to use mandolin fingering: that is, seven frets up to the first position but long enough to give all the pep and snap allowed by law”. Soon after the company came into line with other tenor-banjo makers and lengthened the scale. From 1926 all “Mastertone” banjos were fitted with the normal type tone ring but during the period 1932 to 1935 the company also marketed a banjo without any tone ring and it is this instrument, using the full diameter of the 11” vellum, that finds great favour with present day American “Folk” banjoists. When America entered WWII in 1942 the making of banjos ceased because of the government’s limitations on the amount of metal allowed in any one musical instrument. The company was able to make mandolins and guitars and the factory also made aircraft components. In 1944 the Gibson name and plant was acquired by the Chicago Music Instrument Company of Chicago and in 1948 they started to make “Gibson” banjos and by the 1960’s were selling four models of tenor, plectrum and 5 string banjos incorporating the best features of the pre war instruments. Pictures courtesy of Smakulas Fretted Instruments Orville Gibson Next Maker

The Rosetti was one of their brands and "Lucky Joe" a model. for more information see Egmond Company www.egmond.se next maker