Chicago, Illinois
Slingerland – Henry Heanon

Metal, pearloid, ivoroid, wood, lacquer
Late 1920’s
Scale length @ 26 in.
Strings – Lutes – Banjos

Engraved into peghead: MAY BELL / QUEEN

This is a Slingerland ‘May Bell Queen’ 4-string tenor banjo from the late 1920’s. The peghead and finger board are possibly bird’s-eye maple with two-ply pearloid and ivoroid binding.  Engraved into the peghead is ‘MAY BELL – QUEEN,’ along with a decorative carving of a crown, a floral and a starburst pattern, all filled with red and green ink.  The neck is also decorated with floral carvings.   This 22-fret four string banjo is called a Plectrum banjo and is usually tuned C,G,B,D.  The wooden back called a resonator is covered on top with calf-skin while a wide strip of walnut plywood with ivoroid binds the back circumference of the resonator.  A nickel-plated steel armrest is also attached to the head’s top rim.  On the wood covered back there is decorative and colorful wood inlay. 

Around 1916 the Slingerland Drum Company was formed in Chicago, Illinois by Henry Heanon.  At that time, Heanon was a music instructor at Chicago’s West Side Conservatory of Music.  Two years later he formed a banjo division for manufacture of tenor banjos.  At first he began labeling the instruments “Slingerland May Bell” or just “May Bell.”  Within five years they started manufacturing a wide variety of musical instruments including banjos, banjo-mandolins, banjo-ukuleles, guitars and mandolins selling them under the ‘May-Bell’ label.  These well-made instruments were sold all over the world until the ‘Depression of 1929.’  The company then reverted back to drum making and changed their name to the Slingerland Banjo and Drum Company.  Yet another name change came in the later 1930s identified as the Slingerland Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company. They continued and became a prominent drum manufacturer throughout the 1970s.  The Slingerland name is currently owned by Gibson.

  Resource:  https://www.vintagebanjomaker.com/Maybell