The way the tail piece is inlaid into the pot instead of attached to the outer circumference. Bridge design is similar to pictures I've seen. Also similar to one I viewed on national museum of American history website. The headstock is similar shape as one for sale on Retrofret. The neck/pot joinery is identical to some I've seen pictures of.

The following things made me wonder if it was possibly a Proffitt or Glenn Banjo I realize there have been a lot of these made. I enjoy woodworking and have made a handful of banjos myself and really appreciate the craftsmanship of this instrument. Walnut plugs on pot are hand carved (not perfectly round). Upon inspection, I found it was very well made and had some age to it. I was expecting a roughly constructed or kit type instrument. When I spied this across the antique store earlier, I thought 'hey! A mountain banjo!'. Is the Presto that it came with worth anything? I know it's not a 5-string, but I figured I'd ask. The minimal fret wear suggests that this one was always strung like a uke. I'm happy to see a rosewood board so many banjos from this era have dyed pearwood that crumbles and looks bad once the dye layer is worn through. There's a nice catalog picture of a similar instrument in the Washburn book, but the description is of a more expensive instrument than mine.

Also, the 'Style C' designation isn't documented for tango banjos in the Washburn book, so I'm thinking this is one of the very last ones built - unless the 'Own Make' instruments followed their own rules. I thought it would have been prohibitively expensive to ship a sliver of maple in the hold of some Hamburg-America Line steamer rather than get something made in the US. It looks to be about the same age as the instrument, but I'm surprised to see that it's stamped 'Germany' on the bottom. I'm curious about a couple of things, including the Stewart bridge. It came with a Presto but I was able to obtain a more correct tailpiece from Mr. Replacement head and tailpiece, but everything else looks original. Actually, it came to me misidentified as a banjo uke (and strung accordingly) I liked the nylon sound so I set it up with Aquila's Nyglut set that's good for mandolin tuning. And it only has half the discordance of a true mando-banjo. I've owned a couple of mandolin banjos, so I know the discordant horrors, but this was cheap and in good playable condition.

Vintage banjo identification