Zither banjo Arthur Stanley, 2 Eccleston Street

[Clive McCarthy]

Left: notice signature of owner on the vellum from 1905 It seems it belonged to a Mr Smith of London.

Below: A Stanley, 2 Eccleston Street stamp

I found an old banjo in a junk shop two years ago and its only now that I have a bit of space to renovate.

I had two main questions when I started to look at this, "what is the age of the instrument? The web is a wonderland for projects such as this and after a bit of searching I found my banjo had a makers stamp on it with the name and address A Stanley, 2 Eccleston Street SW. I found a reference to a perfomer on A Stanley who had a connection with Greenop banjos from the web siteBritish Banjo Makers Part 2 '

Norton Greennop was born in 1868 and was closely associated with the fretted instruments for over forty years. he played the banjo with the Moore & Burgess Minstrels and The Stavordales but was more widely known for his long partnership with Arthur Stanley Sr. The team of Stanley & Greenop toured every Music Hall in the United Kingdom from 1903 more than once and even did a tour of South Africa. The partnership broke tip just prior to the outbreak of World War I'

http://www.whitetreeaz.com/vintage/brit2.htm

I think what I have here is an up market model from the makers "

William Nice London".

From Zither banjo.org

'One of the earliest of commercial makers in London was teacher and dealer named William Nice. In the early 1870s he had a shop and studio at 2 Eccleston Street, Victoria, from which he sold his own make of unfretted banjo. He had various addresses near Victoria Station before the year when he moved to 122 Fleet Street, E.C. It is interesting to note that Will Mitchell (many years later to be in charge of the Clifford Essex workshops) was employed by Nice before he (Mitchell) went to the workshops of Richard Spencer.
Nice ran a flourishing studio and shop in Fleet Street teaching all the
fretted instruments and selling banjo and zither-banjos he had helped fashion in his workshop. His premises were the meeting place for many professionals of the day.
When he died, Arthur Stanley (the elder) took over his business but did continue the manufacturing side'

http://www.zither-banjo.org/pages/nice1.htm

So Arthur took on an existing business, If any body out there can add to the Arthur Stanley, 2 Eccleston Street story or anything connected please contact this site.

Why six machine heads (of a guitar type) only four notches in the nut but five string receivers. Well Andy Perkins of Andy Perkins traditional instruments Faversham Kent explained that there is a tube running down inside the fretboard for what I would call the resonator string it seems only 5 tuners are used and this was just a cheap method of using guitar machines instead of dedicated banjo pegs. Andy also sold me new vellum for the resonator head (the old one has been on the banjo for 100 years), a new fifth string pip, a bridge and new machine heads. What a mind of knowledge he is.

http://www.andybanjo.com/

The carved back was dry and split

The instrument was in a bit of a state when I got it, the wood had been damp then had dried out what will follow will be a number of images of what the Banjo was like and what I hope it may look like.

The old machines have rusted and expanded the bone buttons

a close-up of the tone ring and old vellum

Headstock before disassembly

the two holes where the resonator string and fifth string pip locator

The old machine heads taken off the head stock, I shall replace them with a set of Wilkinson geared open back Machines.

The neck is excellent, just really polish wear, dirt and grease so time for a good spruce up. I cleaned off the dirt with 'stardrops' then cut back the finish with various grades of wet and dry paper.

The back in its glued

state with the major split repaired.

Gluing up the carved back

The reverse of the headstock

the other set of machines , again they will not take too much tension.

the resonator before disassembly.

Old vellum has been taken off and exposes

upper and lower tone rings. The old french polish

has been taken back with 400 and 600 grit wet and dry paper. I have left as much metal hardware on as possible because 110 year old screws have a tendency to snap as I have found out to my cost.

My final layers of french polish, I trained as afrench polisher when I was sixteen and its always a useful skill set.

Fitting the new machine heads

( they work beautifully ) but a word of warning you

will need to cut the shank down as they were made for a guitar. Get a good sharp hacksaw and finish of with a soothing file.

Cleaning all the metal parts with a Dremal I new I could justify one , actually when it comes to cleaning 100 year old bolts you will need one.

I do not want to put a new fretboard on

he instrument so a guy from Ohio

e-mailed me to say fill the dips with heated shellac

I used a solution of one part linseed

oil two parts turps to refresh and clean the inner body.

One last shot of the inside, for the makers number.

Cutting back the finish

The first coat of button polish to the neck

The first coat of button polish

The tone rings sparkled ( see wear to plating )

The tone rings sparkled

I needed to clean the metal work so I picked the brains of my Dean of Faculty who is also a very accomplished Artist working in precious metals and he suggested Blitz foam, The tone rings sparkled after years of dust and sweat which had taken some of the coating but it is a great product where a straight metal polish can be too harsh

A huge learning curve what was of great help was the website of Dennis Taylor who had a section 'How to fit a Vellum', here are a few shots of how I got on.

putting into position the damp vellum

Cleaning the flesh ring , I also took a look at the website of Jim Fleeting Guitars whist putting the skin on

Punching holes in the dry vellum

more later !

[David Wade]

Nice work Clive, I think I can add a bit of information for you.
First of all Arthur Stanley was a well known teacher/arranger, it was not unknown for teachers to sell "own" brand banjos to pupils. The banjos would come from a major manufacturer with perhaps some customisation and the teachers name engraved or stamped on the instrument. This z-b has a look of a Temlett, Dad Temlett not Willie. The diamond shaped inlays on the top of the resonator are very typical Temlett. I have not seen a Nice z-b in the flesh but my money is on Temlett. The symetric guitar style head-stock and tunnelled 5th string are part of the aesthetics of zither-banjos although derived from quite early American patents. Sorry Andy is wrong! I would recomend stringing with Clifford Essex zither-banjo and using a two legged maple bridges such as a Cammeyer (I doubt Andy has any of these). If you are up in the Midlands on Saturday afternoon, pop along to the MBF, I will be there with the Zither-Banjo Roadshow stall and we'll have a chat about it.
David

[Clive McCarthy]

Dear David
Thank you for your advice (I need all I can get) at the moment I need to cut some replacement diamond shaped inlays both for the neck and he top of the resonator , Can you recommend a supplier ?
Regards Clive M

[David Wade]

Yes no problem mate, I suggest you speak to Clive Hughes, he will guide you. Email me off-list and I'll give his contact details.
Dave

[Carl Anderton]

Clive, thank you for a wonderful photo tour through your restoration process. I really enjoyed it. Bringing an old artifact back to life is fascinating. I hope you have many years of music-making with that old beauty.

[Clive McCarthy]

Thank you Carl very kind sorry if the text and images jump a bit ( I've imported it from my blogger site and will fix in due course).
Clive M

[Michelle Stroud]

Hi

My great grandfather was Arthur Stanley (as was my grandfather!).  My Dad unfortunately died in May 2010 of Cancer but would have been thrilled to see the above commentary.  I have some sheet music written by Arthur Stanley which I would very much like to get a recording of.  I also have a banjo (actually I have two but will keep one!) free to a good home.  My Dad was a banjo player and used to play and sing me songs at bedtime as a treat!  He inherited his fathers banjo and started the process of restoring it.  I am sure he would love it to go to a good home but it is currently in a half finished state.  Please could you contact me if you would like to complete this restoration project.   I will cover the cost of the postage in return for a recording of the music - if that is at all possible?

 

Michelle Stroud