$T2eC16VHJGIFFoo0GMS3BSPgCHIKYw~~60_57

Comment by Joel Hooks on September 28, 2013 at 12:13pm

BTW,  I hope Terry is watching this, he could do a great job making this type of banjo. 

Comment by Strumelia on September 28, 2013 at 1:13pm

The ebay auction I believe said an 11" pot- not large.  But Jim can measure when it arrives!

Comment by Jim Jacquet on September 28, 2013 at 5:15pm

Just copied the rest of the pics from the auction--lets see if I can put them up for people to see...

Comment by Jim Jacquet on October 1, 2013 at 2:13am

Here is the reply I received from Jim Bollman about this banjo:

Nice banjo, I almost bid on it myself but  it's a bit late for my own minstrel banjo collecting. Many of these round  dowel stick, eagle bracket banjos are ascribed to the August Pollmann Co. of  N.Y.C. although the hardware  ( especially the eagle brackets ) was  available from many jobbers in the 1860-1890 era. Buckbee would be a good guess  as a maker although I have not seen a Buckbee with the exact peghead and fifth  peg area treatment. Thus it remains something of an enigma.  Late 1860s or  early 1870s would be a reasonable attribution as to date. The neck seems a bit  earlier than the rim but the banjo looks original from the photos. I'm sure  you'll get lots of enjoyment playing it ( gut or nylgut strings would be  recommended ).

Comment by Jim Jacquet on October 6, 2013 at 12:29am

Latest update. Received the banjo and it IS a beaut! Will post a few pics tomorrow of the peghead shape and the square nuts holding the bracket shoes on the inside of the pot--might help with an ID...
Bob Flesher speculates that, except for the round dowel stick, it might be made by Levi Brown. He also thinks early 1870s.
Bob Carlin and Peter Szego think it is a nice old banjo, but aren't sure about who might have made it...
So there has been some interesting feedback, anyway. Now to get her playable...

Comment by Bob Sayers on October 6, 2013 at 8:14pm

It would, of course, be of great interest to decode the "signature" on the back of the neck. It looks sort of like a cattle brand. Anyway, this old banjo clearly has a story to tell.

Comment by Jim Jacquet on October 6, 2013 at 9:40pm

Here are the 2 images I wanted to add. One shows the shape of the peghead, and the other shos the square nuts on the inside of the pot.

On Pg 122 of America's Instrument, by the way, there is a blind gentleman holding a banjo that appears to have the same peghead shape--but there is no mention of the banjo maker.

Comment by Jim Jacquet on October 6, 2013 at 9:42pm

And the other pic...

Comment by Bob Sayers on October 7, 2013 at 11:25pm

I'm still thinking about the mark on the back of the neck.  It might worth checking out the names of minstrel performers in the "Monarchs of Minstrelsy" book to see if anything clicks.  On the other hand, if it were a cowboy banjo in the post-war period, the mark could refer to the name of a cattle ranch, e.g., the "Bar-J Ranch" which is how one would likely read that as a brand mark.   (That's assuming the owner carved the mark into the neck with the banjo face-down and the neck pointing to the right.)  

Comment by Strumelia on October 8, 2013 at 7:33am

Or, it could just be the letter F.

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