John C. Haynes “Bay State” 5-string banjo, model 317,Circa 1890
This is a lower-grade Bay State than the model 354 in my collection, but it is still a well-made banjo. This one, like most Bay State banjos, has an ebony backstrap. This is the banjo shown in an advertisement reproduced on page 239 of Gura and Bollman's excellent book, "America's Instrument - The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century" UNC Press, Chapel Hill, 1999.
