Excelsior Banjo Album by W. Nice

[Joel Hooks]

Folks seem to be enjoying these earlier English banjo music collections, so here is another. 

https://archive.org/details/excelsior-banjo-album-w.-nice

[Trapdoor2]

I'll be the first to say, that's a Nice collection! 🤪

These short pieces tend to be fun to play, even the "Phandango".

[Jody Stecher]

I like this version of the Spanish Flang Dang.

There are some mysteries here.  Why does each page have "13" at its bottom?  

Strange misspellings appear here. Perhaps that is because it was printed in Leipzig where English spelling might not have been the forté of the printers.

In the Old "Plautation"  Rolling March we are told to roll with our "Humb" and first finger only. This is a technique found in  American old time 2 finger picking especially in the playing of those born in the 19th century. I wonder which came first. Is the date of publication known?

[Joel Hooks]

The cover provides some clues as to the date, or at least an earliest date of publication. 

There is a mandolin, so we can rule out before the Spanish Students tour of 1879/1880 which caused that to become popular.  The banjo also looks 1880s but seems to be a smooth arm.  So my guess would be this was published between 1880ish and 1890.

[Jody Stecher]

There are faint impressions of horizontal lines where frets would be and the inlays are placed in such a way as to suggest this may be a fretted banjo.  
Joel Hooks said:

The cover provides some clues as to the date, or at least an earliest date of publication. 

There is a mandolin, so we can rule out before the Spanish Students tour of 1879/1880 which caused that to become popular.  The banjo also looks 1880s but seems to be a smooth arm.  So my guess would be this was published between 1880ish and 1890.

[Joel Hooks]

Owning the original, and being able to view with a loupe, I can say that there are no consistent faint lines in this cut indented to be frets on the banjo, where the guitar and mandolin do have strong lines for the frets. 

[Jody Stecher]

Ah.

Joel Hooks said:

Owning the original, and being able to view with a loupe, I can say that there are no consistent faint lines in this cut indented to be frets on the banjo, where the guitar and mandolin do have strong lines for the frets.