Lyon & Healy 5-string ladies' banjo Circa 1892
Although this banjo is unmarked, it is almost certainly from the Lyon & Healy/Washburn shop and made in the early 1890's. A ladies' banjo with a 10" head and a 24" scale length, it features very nice engraved inlay all up the fingerboard and peghead. The inlay pattern is similar, but not identical to, the inlay pattern used on Washburn presentation banjos from this period, but the rim is not as well made as those on the Washburns. The exact same inlay pattern is on a banjo in the Tsumura "1001 Banjos" book, and that banjo is identified as being made by N.B. Curtis.
