Could you add detail about your motives?

Are you asking if it is "worth restoring" as an investment to sell/flip for profit? (the answer to this is no)

Are you asking if it is "worth restoring" for your own personal use? (Only you could answer this. You will likely not ever get your money back from any you put in.)

I'm not sure if it needs a bunch of work according to what the pictures show. I looks fairly easy fix stuff for someone with some mechanical skills.

I’m not trying to fix it to sell. I would like it play it. I would like to see it as it looked when it was made. I would like to know more of its history. Someone put time and love into this banjo and I would hate to just throw it away. Still, I have to be practical in how much I can spend on it.

are you familiar with the styles played on a tenor banjo? if so and thats what you're looking for , it probably wouldnt take too much money to get this playable. I wouldnt pay for a restoration, just get a setup and get it playable.

I’m very familiar with contra dance music but from what little information I’ve gathered, this banjo was probably intended for jazz. Don’t know if it works for the style I play. Not sure of the best way to tune it but I play some mandolin and guitar so I can adapt to various tunings and I am open to learning different music styles. Still, I am interested in the looks and craftsmanship of the instrument so I really would like it restored.

What work does it need? It looks fine to me. You could replace the head, but the old skin that's currently installed may have some life left. If it were mine, I'd simply install new strings, tighten up the head, and play it.

I wouldn't try to restore it to new condition. It's ~100 years old and should have a patina. Patinas don't affect playability.

Personally I wouldn't. To spend $$ getting it pristine like it came out of the factory would destroys its patina. Just get it playable. Just my 2c worth.

Polishing up the wood and metal and just a general cleaning will do wonders for it. It looks like the tailpiece may need replacing and the peghead veneer is broken off in places. I think I’d like to see what it would cost to replace that veneer while keeping the inlay or new inlay. There is a small tear in the head so it needs replacing too.

Don't polish the wood or metal - you'll damage both. The most you should do is clean the metal parts with dish soap and water.

You can play irish tenor banjo on it, that might be the closest to a contra dance style, but most contra dance music is old timey five string banjo. Like others have said, a light cleaning and good setup is probablly all this banjo needs. Dont refinish or polish metal on antique banjos.

Yup, looks fine to me. Not pretty but certainly functional. As John mentions, you could remove the hardware and scrub it with a toothbrush and some dish soap. Soaking in diluted vinegar can get rid of more stubborn corrosion, but this should be done sparingly. 

If you need to replace the head, keep in mind that a plastic head may not fit due to the rim being out of round (hard to tell from the picture). In this case, you'll need to mount a new natural head. Not difficult or expensive, but takes some preparation. 

It would probably be worth removing the tuning pegs and getting rid of any dust/gunk in or around the holes. Just use a damp rag. If the edges of the holes are in bad shape, you could try adding a leather or fiber washer. The tuning pegs themselves will need adjustment (via the little screw) to hold properly. 

Fixing the peghead veneer is a different level of service. I wouldn't mess with it unless the veneer is actively coming off, in which case you could put some glue into the exposed seams. 

Even if you don't plan on playing Irish music, you still might consider GDAE tuning when shopping for new strings. That way, you can directly transfer over whatever you know on mandolin. 

Vinegar of any dilution is a bad idea on nickel plated metal. Stick with dish soap or do nothing.

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions but I am surprised that no one had information on the banjo itself. It seems an unusual banjo because it has a bowl shaped resonator and the head is stretched over it.

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Originally posted by wallflower

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions but I am surprised that no one had information on the banjo itself. It seems an unusual banjo because it has a bowl shaped resonator and the head is stretched over it.

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You did not make it clear that you wanted information beyond if it was "worth restoring" and if there was a "luither" near you.

Fred Van Eps was a banjoist, very popular recording artist, and eventual recording equipment designer and manufacturer. 

While touring with the Victor Famous Eight Recording Artists he entered into partnership with the singer Henry Burr to manufacture a banjo he designed specially for recording.  These were were made in a garage behind his house.   I have also been told (by someone who owns a large amount of FVE documents) that some of his production banjos were made by Gibson based on letters that FVE wrote to his wife. I have not seen these letters and do not know how accurate this claim is.  These banjos were distributed by Lyon and Healy until FVE left the Famous Eight and bought Burr out.

There are hundreds of recordings of Fred Van Eps available.  FVE played 5 string banjo exclusively.  He only made tenor banjos because they sold, he did not play them and was known to call them "noise".

FVE regular 5 string banjos (of production run) are interesting banjos.  The design makes them extremely sharp and staccato sounding.  The scale is 28.5 which is very long and difficult for many to play.  They are the opposite of the "modern" old time banjo in every way.  When they come up for sale the actually sell in the $1500 range when in very good and complete condition.

However, you have a tenor banjo.  Beyond someone wanting the hooks and nuts, they really are not even great for parts as the bowls are not interchangeable with 5 string banjos.  I suppose there is limited "value" in converting them to 5 string.  You seem to be missing the wrench, which would be the most valuable part and could likely be sold for $60.

Here is a scan of the only known copy of a catalog:

https://archive.org/details/van-eps-banjo-catalog-1921/

If you want to dig further, searching for the Hobbies Magazine interview by Jim Walsh will have more information.  You can also find the patent.  When searching, be careful, there is tons of old, bad info still floating around from times when people just made stuff up. 

Two things to add to Joel's notes. FVE was the father of jazz guitarist Fred Van Eps, and some of the skin heads had holes cut in them-I don't know the diameter, or even if they were cut before or after installation-presumably for projection during recording.

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Originally posted by Jbo1

Two things to add to Joel's notes. FVE was the father of jazz guitarist Fred Van Eps, and some of the skin heads had holes cut in them-I don't know the diameter, or even if they were cut before or after installation-presumably for projection during recording.

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*George Van Eps.  He was an absent father and in a magazine interview George claimed that Fred had no influence on him at all.

See the catalog I linked to regarding the hole. 

I agree this banjo deserves to continue life wearing its patina, showing the love and respect its owner(s) had for it as a "player" instrument.

The head might be quite slack as it is, which is bad for sound/tone and playability. You might GENTLY and SLOWLY tighten the head with an appropriately sized wrench, tightening each tension hook no more than 1/4 turn at a time. If you snap your index fingernail against the top of the head, it should make a sharp SNAP! sound. Not "thud" or "flop" or "mud" or "plop" or anything like that. You don't want to rush and over-tighten lest you burst the head, and as said above, getting a new one could be a bit of a trial for a newbie. Certainly not something to trust your local Guitar Center with.

Tune the strings up to pitch (usually C-G-D-A starting with the biggest thickest string and going across). If the head is minimally tight enough none of the strings should be laying on the frets and consequently sounding like a snare drum. If you get that far, then start leaning to play. There's lots of OLD tenor banjo sheet music and instruction books to help you get started, also DVD's on line lessons, etc. Do some searching.

Your banjo was considered a very fine instrument in its day, pro-quality. It's quite well made. Treat it kindly, and get to where you can strum some simple chords and pick out some tunes on it. The maker, Lyon & Healy, was a fine instrument company and supplied lots of different instruments back in the day.

I had a van eps tenor not long ago. While not the greatest banjo for traditional jazz, it had its charms. (See Jake Wildwood’s post about it on his web site) I am drawn to the innovative method - that dish-shaped resonator- van eps came up with to increase volume and get the banjo to sound better in recordings. Also check vinnie mondelo’s banjo haven site to see one he recently converted from a plectrum to a Tenor banjo. As others suggested, tune it like an octave mandolin g-d-a-e and it’ll be just fine for fiddle tunes at a contra dance.