Dating Clifford Essex Banjos (Continued)

[John Cohen]

The discussion about dating CE banjos was interesting and I thought it deserved its own thread.  A quick internet search of Google Images has turned up a number of Concert Grand plectrum and tenor banjos with the Clifford Essex Co. plate and the slanted name stamps on the dowel.  These banjos have wooden resonators.  Does anybody know when Clifford Essex began producing 4-string resonator banjos?  Some of them are labeled as being from the 1930s, but if the Clifford Essex website is correct about their name plates, that cannot be correct.  Here's a few links...

http://theshadygrove.co.uk/instruments/clifford-essex-concert-grand...

http://www.gumtree.com/p/other-music/clifford-essex-4-string-banjo/...

(the first image attached to this discussion is the backside of this tenor).

I've also attached an image from the backside of a 5-string Paragon that has a serial number and the Clifford Essex Co. plate.  Didn't the Paragon enter production in the early 1920s?

The third attached photo is of a 5-string Concert Grand identical to mine.  

According to Clifford Essex, after Richard Spencer died in 1915 his workshop and parts were purchased by CE and his best craftsmen were hired.  Maybe these guys kept marking the banjos they made with the slanted names and used older nameplates?  

[John Cohen]

Here's another interesting photo of the dowel stick of a 7-string Richard Spencer banjo likely from the 1890s.  Notice how the name stamps are slanted.

The neck is secured to the rim with two ebony wedges like the 5-string Concert Grands I've seen, but unlike the two four-string concert grands posted above.