Nailed it?

One area on the underside of the pot had a lot of nail heads protruding. They weren't visible before so they must've been put there before the pot was painted. I don't know how Zither Banjo heads were constructed but I wonder if the nails were to stop the wood base sliding off the sides when they were clamped for gluing, or if they were from some very old repair job.

The nail heads were too small for pliers so in the end I used a pair of concave Bonsai branch cutters to pull them out.

Now with a nail free curved piece of whatever wood it is, I'm ready to glue the overlap together. I've been doing a little looking into what the black paint will be and given it's age it's probably an oil based lead paint. I'd been hoping to repaint it with something as close to the original as I could find but I don't really fancy damaging my nervous system for the sake of authenticity. Think I'll have to find a safer alternative.