{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O92609"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O92609/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EC7757/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EC7757/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010EC7757","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA0136","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O92609/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O92609","accessionNumber":"226-1882","objectType":"Banjo","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This banjo is one of the earliest versions of the instrument to survive, and looks primitive when compared to later versions. The banjo was derived from the West African  <i>banja</i>, an instrument built round a gourd and played on slave plantations in the United States. Joel Walker Sweeney of Appotomax, Virginia, popularized the instrument in both America and England, during the 1840s and 1850s, and it became very much associated with blackface musicians' bands like the Christie Minstrels, who performed in music halls and occasionally at grand houses. So popular was the banjo by the 1880s that the humour magazine <i>Punch</i> made a joke about the new Latin verb, 'Banjo, banjas, banjat'.","physicalDescription":"Description taken from department file: Banjo, pear-shaped body, with a flat back of pine in which there is a small soundhole bushed with bone. The sides of maple ?, nailed to the sides of the mahogany neck. The latter continues as a pole across the body under the vellum. The vellum is stretched over onto the sides and held by brass tacks. It appears to have been once fitted to an instrument of smaller, blunter, shape. The bridge is of wood topped with bone. The neck is unfretted and has bone nut and with a lug half-way along on the bass side to hold the peg of the sort thumb string. The flat, figure of eight head is of rosewood, with four ebony pegs inserted from the rear. The five gut stringed are led to a short wooden tailpiece strung to an ivory end-pin driven into the end of the neck pole ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Vellum","id":"AAT11852"},{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12620"},{"text":"beech","id":"AAT11948"},{"text":"bone","id":"AAT11798"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"nailing","id":"AAT53017"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Vellum soundboard nailed to beech sides, pine back and bone soundhole","categories":[{"text":"Musical instruments","id":"THES48919"},{"text":"Black History","id":"THES48989"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2010EC7757","2017KA0136"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"CA037","id":"THES414715"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Banjo","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1840","earliest":"1835-01-01","latest":"1844-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"104","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"total","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"34","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"body","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"11","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This formed part of the collection of Carl Engel (1919 - 1882), a leading   musicologist who published the <i>Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical  Instruments in the South Kensington Museum</i>   (London, 1874). Engel's  collection was bought by the museum in 1882, nos. 150 to 350, for £555. 6<i>s</i>. 0<i>d</i>.\r\nRP 2315/1882\r\nBought for £1\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Banjo, American, 1830-1840","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"London, Victoria & Albert Museum: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Part II, Anthony Baines: <i>Non-keyboard instruments</i> (London, 1998), pp. 42 - 43."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["226-1882"],"accessionNumberNum":"226","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1882,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-17","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-11","availableToBook":false}}