[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 1
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 2
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 3
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 4
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 5
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 6
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK - photo 7

[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK

Lot 106
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 12 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
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Archive
ID 1249742
Lot 106 | [QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK
Estimate value
£ 10 000 – 15 000
[QUARRYMEN BANJO] – Arthur O. Windsor Musical Instrument Maker, Birmingham, UK
A Five-String Banjo, c.1920
The banjo played by Rod Davis and John Lennon in The Quarrymen from 1956-1957. Acquired shortly before he joined Lennon’s skiffle group in late 1956, the banjo was played by Davis at numerous gigs across Liverpool including on 6 July 1957 at St Peter’s Church in Woolton, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney. ‘When John Lennon broke a string during a performance he would take over my banjo mid-song and continue playing it until the end of the song, by which time I would have replaced the string on his guitar and we would swap back. When we practised at his mother Julia’s house she would often borrow it to play and show us more chords as she said she preferred my banjo to the guitars of John and Eric Griffiths, the other guitarist in The Quarrymen’.

Stamped at the headstock VICTOR / SUPREMUS and the applied brass nameplate THE WHIRLE / REG. 450220 WINDSOR MAKER BIRMINGHAM ENG, the pot of beechwood with nickel-plated sheathing, the twenty tension bracket hooks, lugs, shoes and separate flanges all nickel-plated, the neck of mahogany with ebony fingerboard and pearl eyes, the laminated mahogany resonator with sycamore banding, diameter of the head 10 5/8 in. (27cm)

Provenance: Rod Davis (b.1942; acquired in 1956; exhibited at the Beatles Story Museum, Liverpool, 2002-2013).
Auction house category:Musical instruments
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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