BANJO AUCTION

[IAN SALTER]

These are a few nice banjos that are coming up soon:

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/be4a56a631885...

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/bd87c2cfb6263...

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/f386c6136412d...

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/72521857b24a6...

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/c64d74b4e850e...

[Jody Stecher]

Zowie!  I do love banjos.

[IAN SALTER]

It looks to me like they could be from someone's collection. The Windsor 'Emperor' with the two double courses is interesting.

I quite fancy this one, but imagine that a few others will too. Is it an early 10.5" hoop Weaver, with a cut down fiddle tail piece , or a CE by another maker?

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/6abe50ec7836a...

[Jody Stecher]

Somehow the magnifying function only enlarges the upper 4/5 of the banjo so I could not get a good look at the tailpiece. After downloading and enlarging the image on my computer I can see that the tailpiece is a modified violin or viola tailpiece.  There are not enough images to determine if this was made by Weaver.  The image of the perch pole is blurry but the auction house reports that the plaque says " Clifford Essex, Grafton Street.W. "

 Their estimate of final bid is low: £150!  

IAN SALTER said:

It looks to me like they could be from someone's collection. The Windsor 'Emperor' with the two double courses is interesting.

I quite fancy this one, but imagine that a few others will too. Is it an early 10.5" hoop Weaver, with a cut down fiddle tail piece , or a CE by another maker?

https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/6abe50ec7836a...

[IAN SALTER]

I was able to make out the 'Clifford Essex, Grafton Street.W' stamped into the perch pole.

Unless I'm not reading it correctly, this text (which I can't seem to paste) points to it being one of the short lived "novelty" banjos that he made. Joel noted that they were similar to the SSS 'Special Thoroughbred' and Farland models, pitched to D.

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8101061859?prof...

[Jody Stecher]

The idea, presented in the text,  that a slightly higher tuning requires a smaller hoop makes no sense to me. We're talking about a difference of only one whole step.  For a banjo tuned gCGBD an 11 inch head is correctly thought to be excellent for all pitches from fret 2 of the bass string to the highest fret of the 1st string. A banjo tuned to aDAC#E will have frets for all those pitches. Why would they sound better with a smaller head? They would not. They might possibly sound thinner, less sonorous. Now Weaver was making banjos with 17 frets and is complaining (or *someone* is complaining) that 5 more frets are unnecessary for playing music anyone would want to hear.  I would think the uppermost 5 notes on a 22 fret high-tuned banjo would be clarified by a smaller pot.  That just might  be the reason for the small head.   What a higher tuning on a banjo of any number of frets or no frets requires is either a shorter scale (nut to bridge) coupled with the same string diameters used for gCGBD tuning  —or —thinner strings and no change to the scale. 

So I am puzzled.

The text also seems to be hinting that the banjos Weaver made for Clifford Essex are inferior to the ones he branded as is own.  At the same time it seems to say they are identical.

IAN SALTER said:

I was able to make out the 'Clifford Essex, Grafton Street.W' stamped into the perch pole.

Unless I'm not reading it correctly, this text (which I can't seem to paste) points to it being one of the short lived "novelty" banjos that he made. Joel noted that they were similar to the SSS 'Special Thoroughbred' and Farland models, pitched to D.

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8101061859?prof...

[Sam Harris]

I think the catalog is from after Weaver stopped building for CE. The "inferior" banjos are CE specials that look like Weavers, but aren't made by him.

Jody Stecher said:

The text also seems to be hinting that the banjos Weaver made for Clifford Essex are inferior to the ones he branded as is own.  At the same time it seems to say they are identical.

[Joel Hooks]

This

Sam Harris said:

I think the catalog is from after Weaver stopped building for CE. The "inferior" banjos are CE specials that look like Weavers, but aren't made by him.

Jody Stecher said:

The text also seems to be hinting that the banjos Weaver made for Clifford Essex are inferior to the ones he branded as is own.  At the same time it seems to say they are identical.

[Jody Stecher]

Oh!

Sam Harris said:

I think the catalog is from after Weaver stopped building for CE. The "inferior" banjos are CE specials that look like Weavers, but aren't made by him.

Jody Stecher said:

The text also seems to be hinting that the banjos Weaver made for Clifford Essex are inferior to the ones he branded as is own.  At the same time it seems to say they are identical.

[Richard William Ineson]

You are right Sam.  Weaver stopped making banjos for other banjo companies such as Clifford Essex after 1906. The Weaver manifesto/mission statement was published after Weaver was featured in the newspaper 'The Sketch' 30th January, 1907. In my experience, the CE 'Specials' made by Weaver were/are identical to genuine Weaver banjos in all respects. The CE banjo in the auction was definitely made by Weaver but is unusual in having 22 frets, I doubt that the tailpiece is original but was probably a replacement for the, in my opinion,  awful, standard, CE heavy metal tail piece, fitted to many CE banjos. I have only seen three 22 fret Weavers in the past sixty or so years, out of the many which I have owned or seen/handled/played, in that time. Auction estimates for anything are generally set low to attract customers, I would expect this banjo to make at least £250 - £300.00.

Jody Stecher said:

Oh!

Sam Harris said:

I think the catalog is from after Weaver stopped building for CE. The "inferior" banjos are CE specials that look like Weavers, but aren't made by him.

Jody Stecher said:

The text also seems to be hinting that the banjos Weaver made for Clifford Essex are inferior to the ones he branded as is own.  At the same time it seems to say they are identical.