Oct. 30, 2023 - BANJOS: FROM PALMYRA, NY TO BRISTOL,TN
Orchestra Presentation….one of several which we will have for sale.
On Saturday I had the privilege of waiting on this customer. She wanted to trade her guitar for banjo as she was interested in the old style of playing. In the course of the conversation she asked me if knew Joe Sweeney. I thought for a minute, perhaps he played in a local band…but then, she said, he was her distant ancestor. Immediately, I exclaimed, Joel Walker Sweeney! She said, "yes he was my great, great, great grandfather". Now there’s a feather in my cap!
On the other side of the banjo, the Bluegrass side, we acquired this beautiful original Gibson RB-3 from 1929 modeled here by Dr. Michael Keyes
There were some excited looks when I brought this banjo to display at the ABF rally.
Last week I did get a day to spend with my old old old friend Jim Spampinato. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year, but our friendship goes back over 50 years… he accompanied me on many banjo trips and loaned me the money for my first Gibson mandolin!
And speaking of remarkable, Gavin Rice, and his guest from the West, Anna, attended the American Banjo Fraternity rally in full regalia! (Shown here with yet another S. S. Stewart Presentation grade banjo.
BANJOS: FROM PALMYRA, NY TO BRISTOL,TN
October 30th, 2023
Hello Folks,
There’s some BIG BANJO news at Bernunzio’s….so, you say…what else is new? Actually, this is one of the most exciting things that has happened in my entire career of being a purveyor of fine banjos. A few weeks ago we received an email from a customer who decided to part with many of his higher grade banjos. As my collector friends are aging, they are forced to deal with the great instruments that they having lovingly acquired over the years. So it is that we have recently received a dozen banjos that were once a part of the venerable collection of Mr. Akira Tsumura, a recent inductee to the Banjo Hall of Fame at the Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City. Most of these instruments are featured in his book 1001 BANJOS: The Tsumura Collection and purchased from him over the years. Now, these are not just ordinary instruments, but they are the crème de la crème of the classical banjo world. The word that is often given to these high grade instruments is PRESENTATION which designates an instrument of highest quality of ornamentation. Often these instruments, which are highly decorated with pearl and exotic carvings, were reserved for the leaders of banjo clubs or for wealthy individuals who just wanted to spend a month’s salary on a banjo. Yes in 1890, an S. S. Stewart presentation grade banjo would have cost a wealthy man over a month’s salary…A Stewart Orchestra Presentation in today’s dollars would be at least 50 times that original amount.
This past Saturday, we attended the American Banjo Fraternity "rally" in Palmyra, New York. We displayed a few of these banjos, but they have not been made active on our website yet. We intend to make them active over the next few days as we get them set up and photographed. On Wednesday, Julie and I will be heading off to Bristol, Virginia to the Country Music Hall of Fame for the annual "Banjo Gathering". It will be four days of camaraderie, music and "banjo scholarship". We will be carrying a couple of dozen of the highest grade banjos that we have ever owned for display AND for sale. I hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak preview.
Best Regards,
John Bernunzio
The highest grade, banjos had astounding carvings on the neck, the most famous being the lion’s head
The rims of these banjos are a combination of gold and silver and are hand engraved. The inside is adorned with beautiful wooden marquetry
The American Banjo fraternity celebrating its 75th anniversary at the rally in Palmyra, NY.
Our back room old time jam was a hoot even though fearless leader Dan Palmer was not there
On Friday night we connected with our friend, Victoria Deng, sitting next to Julie. She has just taken a job with the State Department in Washington, DC. We met this young woman when she was a seven year old refugee from South Sudan… Her career and path have been nothing short of remarkable.