WS13-7
Maher Un-designated Model
(Flush-fret)
5 String
S/N: None 1876 (Dated) 10 3/4 x 18 3/4"(Nut to Rim) 4 1/4 lb.
Fully original except
apparently missing a decorative “ring” at the 5th string insertion
and missing one hook and nut.
Condition: Near mint except evidently long ago
someone foolishly and clumsily scratched a few shallow fret lines above the
final flush wooden fret.
Background: It’s not known if Maher was the maker or the original owner. Ed
Britt, from whom I acquired this, has seen a reference to “Clarke” banjos using
this method of mounting the neck to the pot without a dowel stick. The Clarke
brand was supposedly quite popular in the 1860s and 70s before S. S. Stewart
unseated them. Farnham of Troy, NY is thought to have taken over the Clarke
company and could possibly have made this banjo.
About this instrument:
1) Well made metal plate on the lower neck superbly engraved , “John L. Maher,
1876".
2) No dowel stick and the neck is held on the rim by a bolt thru the heel.
3) Unusual 5th string mechanism.
4) Neck wood is apparently British walnut and lovely.
5) Twelve flush wooden frets which cease about 2/3rds of the way up the neck.
6) The heel is capped with a metal plate.
7) The square tapered nuts appear to have been hand cast in solid nickel.
8) Inside the rim the nickel washers and square brass nuts are hand cast.
9) The brass hooks are not plated and may be hand cast.
10) The tension hoop is notched for the hooks on the inside edge and not the
top.
11) The tension hoop appears to have been hand made.
12) What appears at first glance to be a full spun pot may actually be a sheet
of metal applied over the outside of the rim.
13) On the back of the peghead the 4 holes are individually marked with
intriguing “numbers” in a strange order.
Click to enlarge:
