NOUVEAU BéBé______________NEW BABE

[marc dalmasso]

Moi aussi , j 'ai un nouveau bébé ; i 've got a new baby , too ...............

Talking with Richard , this beautiful 12 ' banjo is an unusual ' one by AW .

Should be one of the earliest , ' bout 1880

In French : " beau et sobre "

[marc dalmasso]

[Richard William Ineson]

[Richard William Ineson]

As Marc says, a very early Weaver banjo from what is known as 'the bent hook period'. I've attached a photograph of another Weaver from the same period (dated 1879) which is in my collection. Notice (on Marc's banjo) that the hooks had separate balls presumably to protect the clothes of the player, mine have all dropped off unfortunately, also note that the shoes on my banjo are different to the ones on Marc's. My 1879 Weaver is quite a good banjo but prone to 'sulking' in damp weather, it also needs playing regularly to keep it in good voice. Marc's banjo appears to have the 'German silver' fingerboard which also features on an unidentified (by the compilers) Weaver which appears on page 29 of the Tsumura 1001 banjos book, mine may have had this kind of fingerboard at one time but it has been replaced with a very thin veneer of some kind of hardwood. Another banjo of this type was the 'Joe Morley' Weaver which was advertised on the BanjoHangout site and also appeared on this site some time ago.