WS14-5

Fairbanks & Cole                     “Early Style” Un-designated Model                     5 String

 

S/N: 1389                1881                      11 ½ x 28 “                                   4 lb.

 

Fully original.

 

Condition: Near mint.

 

Background: Banjos I call the “early style” have tall and very contoured pegheads, moderately big dimensions, and inlays of geometric shapes arranged in patterns. On instruments with frets, the inlays always seem to appear in frets 6, 8, 11, and 13. Most of them carry no model designation. I have been unable to identify these banjos in either Fairbanks & Cole catalog and they all seem to have been made in the first half of the decade.
 

About this instrument:

1) Ex- Bollman Collection.
2) Neck is of fabulously beautiful curly mahogany.
3) Rather than being decoratively veneered with rosewood, the entire rim is constructed of laminations of rosewood.
4) The bracket nuts are those Hank Schwartz calls "voluptuous" hexagonal nuts in contrast to earlier square nuts with ball ends.
5) Flush ivory frets.
6) Inlays are in frets 6, 8, 11, and 13.
7) Maltese Cross ivory tuners.
8) Elaborate ivory tailpiece. 

 

Click to enlarge: