Zither banjo. Five string. Vellum soundtable, attached to rosewood outer resonator with 14 tensioning screws. Rosewood neck, blackwood fingerboard with mother of pearl inlay. Metal frets, bone nut. Fifth string attached to neck at fifth fret. Remaining four steel strings tuned by machine heads with bone buttons. On the back, at base of pegbox and neck is stamped: T. BOSTOCK/MAKER LONDON.E.C.
The five string banjo is the standard form of the instrument and as such was very popular during the British banjo, mandolin and guitar craze of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This example was made by T. Bostock, of Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, London in the early 20th century. Bostock was a wholesale maker of banjos and zither-banjos from about 1880 to the mid 1920s.
