Windsor Banjo Catalog 1932

[Joel Hooks]

The latest installment of "Joel posing random banjo related ephemera" is the Windsor Banjo catalog circa 1932ish (undated but using clues found within). Single pages of this catalog have been available "on the web" but this is, as far as I know, the first time the entire catalog has been scanned.
 

https://archive.org/details/windsor-banjo-catalog-1932_20250817

[Jody Stecher]

There are more models here than I have seen or have been aware of.  One surprise is Windsor's apparent high opinion of the quality of the banjos in their Whirle line. I had the impression, based on today's prices and the indifferent tone of the few banjos I have heard which were marked "Whirle" was that this was a  budget line.  The prices in the catalog indicate I had the wrong impression.

I never had thought of "dance banjo" as a category. I wonder if it was universal or just a Windsor marketing ploy.

Another surprise was reading that the metal fittings of the New Windsor Patent Zither-Banjo have been "artistically chased:".  

[Jody Stecher]

And then there's the claim that the Windsor Patent Zither Mandolin is "undoubtedly the finest mandolin ever made". And yet I have doubts.  It might be the loudest ever made. I would have to hear and play one to know for sure but I expect I would  find the claim to be an exaggeration. 

Jody Stecher said:

There are more models here than I have seen or have been aware of.  One surprise is Windsor's apparent high opinion of the quality of the banjos in their Whirle line. I had the impression, based on today's prices and the indifferent tone of the few banjos I have heard which were marked "Whirle" was that this was a  budget line.  The prices in the catalog indicate I had the wrong impression.

I never had thought of "dance banjo" as a category. I wonder if it was universal or just a Windsor marketing ploy.

Another surprise was reading that the metal fittings of the New Windsor Patent Zither-Banjo have been "artistically chased:".  

[Joel Hooks]

I could be wrong, but I believe "dance banjo" means pick played. 

[Jody Stecher]

Could be. And the catalog also calls their longer necked cases as being for G banjo. There's that term again. It was discussed here some years ago. Findings and opinions were inconclusive.  Since both 5-string and plectrum banjos fit in the same size case, does that mean that the C-G-B-D long-necked plectrum banjo is also a G banjo? The cases in this catalog are available for tenor or G.  And then some of the Whirle banjos are said to be the same price for tenor, plectrum and G banjo. And others are available as "G plectrum".   Is a distinction being made or is it just sloppy inconsistency?

If the plectrum banjo is also a G banjo it suggests that the G is not a reference to a 5th string. In the Windsor line of 5- string zither-banjos all models   have a G fifth string but they are not being  G banjos.