Last month I stayed with Nadine and John Motto-Ros for a couple of days
at their magnificent house in Sutter Creek, CA.  John took me on a tour
of his collection of instruments, all in showroom condition, including
a roll-playing banjo which was housed in a tall glass-fronted cabinet
with the roll mechanism in the lower part.

It was one of the damnedest things I have ever seen.  I believe that
the contraption was a build-up (there seemed to be no manufacturer
mentioned anywhere) but the rolls seemed to be commercially produced.
Does anyone have any knowledge of these intriguing instruments?

John Farrell