Interesting Banjo- possibly from the 1860s

[John Cohen]

Here's an interesting banjo I have found.  Any info on it?  It looks to be from the 1860s or 1870s with the dowel through the pot construction.  At one point it had very crude frets or flush frets that have since been removed.  The fret positions had been eyeballed and the frets were not properly placed, especially for the upper positions.

[John Cohen]

Last picture.

[Rob Morrison]

John--I've got three very early, relatively crude banjos, all most likely from the Buckbee factory in New York.  All three have round dowel sticks and eagle brackets, two with folded wings and one with spread wings.  The size and shape of the dowel on your banjo seems atypical, though I don't know what that means.  The placement of  position markers is way off on one of my banjos, but good on the other two.  The main thing is to just set them up and have fun playing.  They usually all sound pretty good.

[Rob Morrison]

I second everything that Dan'l said.  I have two "Frankenstein" composite banjos.  One has an 1870's pot and a probably much older neck.  It's a great minstrel instrument with a crisp, snappy sound.  The other is a circa 1880 pot with 48 hooks and a massive walnut mismatched fretless neck--my first choice for old-time.  I spent countless hours restoring them, and it was well worth the effort.