NNYJoe - Posted - 10/12/2025:  03:59:07

If you want to be happy, give your wife a banjo.
youtube.com/watch?v=Vbw6EB-33qc

Stephen John Prior - Posted - 10/12/2025:  06:18:14

Thanks for posting that. An English woman and her 7 String Silver Bell banjo.

Dan Gellert - Posted - 10/12/2025:  09:29:39

It's a 6 stringer.

Stephen John Prior - Posted - 10/12/2025:  11:37:41

I stand corrected Dan.

Dan Gellert - Posted - 10/12/2025:  12:55:25

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Originally posted by Stephen John Prior

I stand corrected Dan.

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I couldn't resist blowing that up and checking it.  6-stringers were not all that unusual in the US at the time, though that is the only Dobson Silver Bell I've seen.  (Any American made 7-stringer would be a huge surprise!) 

It also looks to have a rim larger than 11" !   There were 12 inch Silver Bells in their catalog, but AFAIK there weren't any documented as actually extant before. 

I doubt they've got it on public display in that condition, and I'll bet they don't realize that it wouldn't be all that much of a job to have it properly restored. 

tdennis - Posted - 10/12/2025:  15:53:30

It would be an interesting follow up story as to whether this fine banjo is ultimately repaired & refurbished. (There is an interesting philosophy within archeology that artifacts should be displayed as found). However, on the other side, archeologist frequently do reassemble things as they once were. I would definitely be on the side of finding the best repairman available to make this playable.

Stephen John Prior - Posted - 10/13/2025:  01:48:36

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan Gellert

quote:

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Originally posted by Stephen John Prior

I stand corrected Dan.

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I couldn't resist blowing that up and checking it.  6-stringers were not all that unusual in the US at the time, though that is the only Dobson Silver Bell I've seen.  (Any American made 7-stringer would be a huge surprise!) 

It also looks to have a rim larger than 11" !   There were 12 inch Silver Bells in their catalog, but AFAIK there weren't any documented as actually extant before. 

I doubt they've got it on public display in that condition, and I'll bet they don't realize that it wouldn't be all that much of a job to have it properly restored. 

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Interesting stuff Dan. I don't recall having seen a 6 string before. But here in the UK I have seen and owned 7 string Dobsons including a Silver Bell. A couple have had a Bombay dealers label on the dowel. I imagine they would have manufactured whatever the market called for. 

Dan Gellert - Posted - 10/13/2025:  09:03:24

quote:

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Originally posted by Stephen John Prior

Interesting stuff Dan. I don't recall having seen a 6 string before. But here in the UK I have seen and owned 7 string Dobsons including a Silver Bell. A couple have had a Bombay dealers label on the dowel. I imagine they would have manufactured whatever the market called for. 

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This is getting more educational all the time!  I didn't think that American makers were doing all that much export business pre-1890, and would also have expected any banjos that made it to such distant parts of the Empire then to have been of UK manufacture.  I'd sure like to see a picture of a 7-string Silver Bell, or any other US-made 7-stringer, for that matter!  I don't think I've ever seen one, even in a photo or catalog.  I recall seeing a 19th-c. US patent for what amounted to a guitar-banjo with an added thumb string, but I don't think those were ever in production, and it really is a different concept from the British 7-(and more!)-stringers I've seen, which are not hybrids, but pure banjos with additional strings.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 10/13/2025:  10:47:28

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan Gellert

quote:

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Originally posted by Stephen John Prior

Interesting stuff Dan. I don't recall having seen a 6 string before. But here in the UK I have seen and owned 7 string Dobsons including a Silver Bell. A couple have had a Bombay dealers label on the dowel. I imagine they would have manufactured whatever the market called for. 

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This is getting more educational all the time!  I didn't think that American makers were doing all that much export business pre-1890, and would also have expected any banjos that made it to such distant parts of the Empire then to have been of UK manufacture.  I'd sure like to see a picture of a 7-string Silver Bell, or any other US-made 7-stringer, for that matter!  I don't think I've ever seen one, even in a photo or catalog.  I recall seeing a 19th-c. US patent for what amounted to a guitar-banjo with an added thumb string, but I don't think those were ever in production, and it really is a different concept from the British 7-(and more!)-stringers I've seen, which are not hybrids, but pure banjos with additional strings.

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Henry Dobson was a pretty big exporter of banjos, as far as exporters of banjos go.  He did make/have made banjos specifically for the British market. 



As best as I can tell, Henry would bounce back and forth between the US and England as a way to avoid supplier collections, lawsuits, and personal relationships (one trip, he left his wife in the US and came back married to his student).  At one point he received an order of instruction books from a publisher, wrote a bad check, then boarded a ship to England before it bounced.

The story of the Dobson family is a pretty tough one and ends in tragedy. It is very depressing.  I did a big data dump on Facebook on this (which is were I post most of my banjo documents now as it gets more eyes and response).

Henry, the patriarch of the Dobson family, made his fortune as a slumlord... uh, excuse me,  in "real estate."  By all accounts he was a great banjoist and entertainer on the Minstrel stage (yes, he was a "minstrel banjoist").



The whole family were pretty much con artists.  This is the standard over promise and under deliver scam.  The never ending up sale.

They sell you a banjo.  You show up for lessons, "oh, this banjo won't work, you need frets."  You pay to have it fretted.  "Oh, this tub needs a nickel rim".  You pay for the upgraded rim. Then you need raised frets.  And on and on.  Stewart wrote about this scam and what he was writing was true accounts of dealings with the Dobson family.  

They were also extremely litigious. They would enter into partnerships with each other which would devolve into lawsuits. 



The Dobsons were a part of the transition of taking the banjo out of minstrelsy and making banjo recitals viable.  This came in the form of their WWE style fake "banjo contests" where they or their students would always win.  Any other contestants would just win cheap banjos.  But these were popular and well attended. 

They were big on selling the "simple method" of learning banjo-- instant playing ability with no notes!  But always were quick to add that if you really wanted to learn you would need to buy more (different) books from them.



I have no doubt that if they were living today they would be youtube gurus selling useless courses on how to get rich quick making AI slop or running drop-shipping websites.



This eventually caught up to them.  There was an attempted murder suicide (a spouse fed her child poison and then took it herself after learning that a son was arrested for stealing silk fabric).  There were other problems and the final tragedy was that the Henry Dobson mansion burned down.  This was after an article ran where Henry blames everyone but himself for going bankrupt. 

That said, there was a "Dobson School of Music" continuously running in New York City well into the 1930s and later.   And there is no doubt that they were a large influence in the popularity of the banjo.  They published a pretty large amount of books and stuff.  I have an entire file box of just Dobson stuff (many are nonsense "simple method" books of various levels of usefulness) that I will eventually scan.  They did operate their banjo school for the better part of a century and one does not stay in operation that long without turning out successful students.

Ira Gitlin - Posted - 10/13/2025:  11:39:45

Sounds like a great idea for a Netflix series!

Joel Hooks - Posted - 10/13/2025:  11:57:51

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Originally posted by Ira Gitlin

Sounds like a great idea for a Netflix series!

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Yeah, except for that whole blackface thing... and the racism. 

Andy FitzGibbon - Posted - 10/13/2025:  17:42:56

I have seen Dobsons in both six and seven string configurations. I've also seen a couple Orpheum seven strings.

Stewart and Dobson both exported a fair amount of product. I've seen several instruments from both manufacturers with dealer tags from a number of colonial cities and counties around the world.