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In 1864 George Washburn Lyon and Patrick J. Healy were sent to Chicago by Oliver Ditson to set up his Mid West musical instrument wholesale business and among their suppliers was C F Martin. In 1880, frustrated with the lack of volume available from some of the makers, including Martin, they broke away from Ditson, and in 1883 set up a manufacturing business which included banjos, mandolins and a few guitars to initially suppliment the instruments they distrubuted for others. The business grew very quickly and George B Durkee, superintendent of what had become the huge Lyon & Healy factory in Chicago, Illinois, designed the Washburn range of banjos, mandolins and guitars, made and sold by the company. One writer has said “they let S S Stewart do all the donkey work before they started making banjos which, at first, were copies of Stewart’s range”. In 1889 Lyon retired from the business (the year after Oliver Ditson died) but Healey continued to improving the quality of the range of products the business was making. In January 1915 they advertised “The New Improved Washburn Banjos (Patented)” which they described as “the latest thing in banjo construction”. This instrument incorporated patents taken out by William D Bowen who sold the manufacturing rights to Lyon & Healy. It is interesting to note that this firm made zither banjos probably for export to England as some were advertised in the “for sale” columns of the fretted instrument press of the day and for a time S A Halfpenny (the notable English zither banjo virtuoso) played a Lyon & Healy instrument. At one time Lyon & Healy stress that every part of the “Washburn” banjos –brackets, pegs, rims, fingerboards etc. was their own make. In March 1922 they were offering the patented “ Van Eps Recording Banjo ” - “with the internal resonator and outward curved dowel or cross piece” but made it clear that they were only the distributors and not the makers. ... they appeared to cease manufacturing during the depression. Lyon & Healy next maker

Horatio Leonard (Len) Shevill was the son of an old time banjoist Horatio Randell Shevill (b 1876) who ran a teaching studio in the Fulham district of London in the 1880s. Len Shevill entered the profession in the early 1920s and established a teaching studio in Maida Vale from which he conducted a world-wide correspondence course for teaching. the plectrum banjo and tenor-banjo. He also sold musical accessories and his "own make" of instrument which was named the "Len Shevill Special." These were made for him by J.G Abbott. In the early 1930s he moved to Bournemouth and here he was active in a playing capacity until about 1950 when he retired from the music profession and took over the management of the Belvedere Hotel. Picture courtesy of Westley Horner Len Shevill 1894 to .. next maker

A L Duffin next maker .. name appears on this banjo .. Research has only turned up one A L Duffin a carpenter out of Reading Berkshire who's sister was a music teacher. He may well have been a contemporary of AW Deane who was also a carpenter in Reading and who's wife was a music teacher.

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

... was born in Accrington, Lancashire and at 12 years of age was being taught banjo by local music teacher Will Birch .... A course in music theory and piano gave him the technical knowledge to compose for banjo and in 1894 published his first solo “Military March”. In 1900 he formed the Burnley B M&G Orchestra which fulfilled many local engagements for five years , at which point he started touring music halls with his wife Florence. Hi compositions attracted the attention of Clifford Essex and in 1911 he was appointed Editor of “B.M.G. “ which he undertook for 22 years. The now famous author, composer, arranger and banjoist, severed connections with the Clifford Essex Company to form his own firm in conjunction with his son in 1933. Previous to this date he had sold banjos to his private pupils which he had made for him by Robert (“Bob”) Blake of Finchley, London. These instruments bore the mark " E.G." or "Hartford". When Emile Grimshaw & Son came into existence in Piccadilly, London, in 1933 Bob Blake was responsible for the prototypes and early model banjos sold by them but when demand increased these instruments were copied and made in Houghton's factory in Birmingham. The "Vivavox" models in the Grimshaw range (based on the type of instrument made in America by Vega and called by them "Vegavox" were made for them by Sidney Young . Starting their own workshops in 1940 (to meet the demand for guitars), Grimshaw & Son employed Will Mitchell from 1942 (after the closure of the Clifford Essex workshops) and he was responsible for many Grimshaw banjos (often made from parts acquired from the Essex workshops) until his death in 1947. Since that date the firm has been noted for its guitars for over twenty years, but started to make an occasional banjo again from 1965. For more detailed information on Grimshaw go here Grand and Vivavox images courtesy of Charles Allbut Emile Grimshaw 1880 to 1943 next maker

The L B Gatcomb Co., Boston Mass, was well known as makers of banjos well into the turn of the 20th C. Lincoln B Gatcomb was born in Hancock, Maine, on 25th June 1854 and bought his first banjo when a boy after hearing Bill Carter perform. Being dissatisfied with the crude instrument he decided to make himself a better one, having been apprenticed to the stair builders trade where he learned a lot about wood working and tools. He used his spare time to make banjos which he sold without any trouble. In 1875 he gave up all thoughts of stair building and started to manufacture banjos full time as a business based in East Boston. In 1880 George L Lansing became an associate and this famous player gave him many suggestions for the improvement of his instruments. In 1885 he established a banjo and guitar factory in Hanover Street, Boston, and the business steadily grew from that time on. He began publishing music in 1887 in which year the company was incorporated. Two years later he opened a teaching establishment as a58 Winter Street with HW Harris, BE Shattuck, AA Babb and George Lansing on his teaching staff, and in 1887 he started his famous “Gatcomb’s Musical Gazette”. All this combined to helped him sell his range of banjos which included “The Amateur”, “The Student”, “the Standard”, “The Lansing”, “The Special” and “The Peerless” ranging in price from $10 to $100. In 1895 the LB Gatcomb Co Inc. was advertising from its premises at 171 Tremont Street, Boston as “sole owners and manufacturers” of the “new” Lansing banjo range which had a range of 3 octaves and saying that “all advanced players requires a 3 octave instrument”. Images courtesy of John Bernunzio Lincoln B Gatcomb 1854 to next maker

The firm of Douglas & Co., of 7 South Street, London, E.C., sold zither banjos with their name etched on a small celluloid disc let into the peghead. (or embossed on the back of the peghead and on the heel) Edward F Douglas was born in Scotland in 1832 and was recorded as a Music and Pianoforte seller in 1881. By 1911 he was widowed, a retired piano tuner and he died in 1915. The inlay on the back of this instruments is similar to G. Houghton of Birmingham. Douglas & Co next maker

.. was a maker of banjos in the early 1880’s. In 1884 he constructed a six string banjo and tuned it like a guitar thus enabling a guitarist to play the banjo at oneand it is recorded that banjo adherents of that time “received a jolt from a quarter they least expected it.” It was predicted that the instrument spelt the doom for the banjo. . (note: the guitar did not become a popular instrument available to the masses until the 1920’s) No doom arrived and little more is known of Clark’s banjos. Edmund Clark Do you have a banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

... was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire but moved to live with his brother in Broughton, Lancashire , where in 1881, he was a musical instrument maker, including organs. By 1901 he was married with two daughters living in Stockport, Cheshire, and was a self employed piano tuner and musical instrument repairer. He had also changed his name to Crosbie. Joseph Crosby 1857 to .. next maker

In the early 1920’s The Regal Musical Instrument Co., of 3211 W Grand Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, included banjos amongst instruments they made and these were mainly sold through the big American wholesalers, e.g. Tonk Brothers of Chicago and Bugelesein & Jacobean of New York. It is not known when they left Chicago but in 1965 Fender Sales Inc., of Santa Anna California were marketing five models of “Regal “banjos which, it was stated, were “distributed exclusively” by Fender. Picture courtesy of Bruce K . Regal Next Maker

... was born in Clapham, Surrey and out of 9 Falcon Road, Battcrsea, London, S.W., he was initially known as a maker of flat-back mandolins of his own design but he did make a number of banjos and zither-banjos; mainly for other firms, to sell as their own make. In 1896 he was granted a patent pertaining to zither-banjo construction in conjunction with J E Brewster . In February 1899, in conjunction with W E Temlett , he was granted a patent for a roller-"nut" but there is no indication how he came to co-operate with Temlett. However in 1911 at age 34 he was recorded as a Banjo Maker, married with two sons and two daughters, not as an employer but working for others, and living at 25 Khyber Road, Battersea S W. He died in the late 1940s when Clifford Essex & Son acquired his stock of timber, etc Frederick Langham 1877 to c 1947 Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker