George Houghton & Sons banjo-mandolin--info?

[Mandoviol]

Hi folks,

I recently acquired what I believe is a George Houghton & Sons banjo-mandolin (apparently a "New Reliance" model of some strain, also marketed as "The Marvel"--this instrument lacks labels of any kind), and would like to know more about it. I'm currently doing a restoration on it, so I can't put up photos of the complete instrument (it's in a state of dismemberment in my basement), but after much combing on Google, I happened to find a picture of a similar instrument (same Grover bridge, too!):


This one has "The Marvel - 288" imprinted on the headstock (and was in Virginia; mine came via Canada). My mandolin's headstock is blank. All I can say about the instrument is that it seems to date to around the turn of the last century; apparently Houghton and Sons was founded in 1888 and produced instruments up through the 1960s.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

-MV-

[Jim Garber]

I am assuming that you got your information from this same site:

HOUGHTON

George Houghton established his Reliance Works in Heaton Street, Birmingham in 1888 and the range of banjos and zither-banjos he made were branded "Reliance." His well made inexpensive range of instruments quickly found favour with dealers and players alike and before long his factory was extended, his staff increased and the name changed to G. Houghton & Sons and production almost wholly devoted to making instruments for other firms to be branded with the vendor's name and/or trademark. Houghton's maintained a stock catalogue of instruments (usually marked with a gold-embossed lion with the initials G. H. & S. underneath) with which many retailers and most of the wholesale houses made up their own catalogues. One of the most popular selling lines of their banjos was the inexpensive instruments labelled "Melody Jo." Besides making, their own stock instruments they would also copy other firms' prototypes for them, to be branded with the latter's name as "makers".

In 1962, town-planning development in Birmingham plus staff difficulties finally decided George Houghton (son of the founder) to close down and he moved to London to become associated with John E. Dallas & Sons Ltd. The plant and materials and a few of his key workers he brought from Birmingham was established in a factory-at 12 Gravel Hill, Bexleyheath, Kent, and from that time until he retired in 1965 he made the inexpensive banjos sold under the Dallas label.

Also another picture example.

[Mandoviol]

Yeah, that's where I got my info; that, and an old Banjo-Hangout archived thread (sadly sans pictures) discussing another mandolin in the same model series. Still not enough to satisfy my curiosity, though; my mando's more or less a dead-ringer for the one in the photos I attached, though I have a one-piece ply pot on mine and no identifying markings. They seem to have tried different head-mountings over the years, too, as the one in your image looks simpler (also, a bigger head).

What I'd really like to do is verify the name of the model of the instrument; there doesn't seem to be any "hard" ID on the web.