Let me preface this by saying I'm not a musician and I certainly don't know how to play this instrument, and it's not playable in its present condition anyway, so forgive me if I get any of the terminology wrong, but I'll do my best.
Obviously, whether you call it a banjolele or a banjo-ukulele, or something in between, my first observation is that it's broken in two at the head. The two pieces fit neatly together, however, so it would still make a nice decorative piece if you just want to glue it back together and hang it on the wall. But even then, one of the tuning pegs is missing - the break runs right through the hole where the peg used to be mounted. The break also runs diagonally through the manufacturer's logo, which depicts a Hawaiian girl and a couple of palm trees, with the name "Mele" across the top and the company initials "B. & J., N. Y." at the bottom ("B. & J." stands for Buegeleisen & Jacobson, or so I'm told).
If it wasn't broken, it would measure about 20-1/2" in length, and the body is about 7" in diameter and about 2-1/4" deep, made of what I believe is maple.
I've taken pictures from about as many different angles as I can think of, not only so you can see the break, and the torn drumskin head, and the general wear and tear, but also to show you the decorative work in the form of the fancy sound holes in the back of the body and the arrowhead striping decals around the body and up the middle of the neck. Apart from the missing tuning peg, its strings are also missing, but beyond that I'll let the pictures do the talking.
How old is it, you ask? Well, it looks nice and vintage, but I can't say any closer than that. 1920's or 1930's, maybe, but that's just a guess.
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