My Antique Musical Instruments

A nice E-flat helicon, “made by F. Busch, New York”, a very rare maker.

No serial number, so I cannot date it.  I’ve only seen cornets referenced in modern collections, including an echo bell. My helicon has had an extender added to the main tuning slide to bring it down to modern pitch, but no other modifications or obvious repairs.  I had no repair work to do when I found it.

Per BrassHistory.net, “Frederick Busch came to America as a young boy with his family and by 1869 had an instrument shop at 255 Bowery in New York City. He was born in Markneukirchen, Germany, the center of brass instrument making in that country.

“Although Busch had a shop at that same address as late as 1917, three years before his death, it is not known how many instruments he made.”

John Howard Foote, a Connecticut boy, began an instrument business in New York City in 1857, with various partners, including J. F. Stratton; in 1864 the firm was Stratton & Foote…importers & manuf of musical instruments. In 1868 Foote added a Chicago store.

An 1888 article says that “the NY store covers six floors and is the oldest and largest store in the country. They sell brass instruments, violins, flutes, cellos, guitars & banjos. They are the sole US supplier for Courtois and the sole maker for the “Challenge” and J. Howard Foote “Superior” brands of light piston band instruments”.

It seems that Foote was primarily (or exclusively) an importer and dealer, not a manufacturer. The above mentioned Antonie Courtois was one of the finest French manufacturers of the day; those instruments in Foote catalogues for whom a manufacturer can be identified are all by Courtois, but other sources seem possible.

The firm was formally incorporated as J. Howard Foote, Inc. in 1897, a year after John died, but instruments could have been stamped with that name a good deal earlier.  The firm was liquidated in 1904. (Thanks to Horn-u-Copia for much of the history.)

A top action, string rotary valve e-flat tuba, remarkably conical with a large throat and small bell, producing a rich sound.  A tiny stamp on the bell reads  ”Seefeldt Musical Inst. Manuf. Co., Philadelphia“. I cannot find enough of a serial number list to give any indication of date of manufacture.

German emigrant William F. Seefeldt produced high quality brass instruments in Philadelphia; the Seefeldt Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co. first appears in 1858.  Instruments were exhibited at the Franklin Institute in 1874 and at the Paris Exposition in 1878; closing out of instrument stock is documented in 1903.

Early on, Seefeldt’s work focused on handmade valves and rotors, later contributing to the industry’s design and manufacturing techniques.  His horns were prized in both orchestras and brass bands for their quality of manufacture and for a generally deep, rich sound.  A succession of family members kept the firm going over generations.

Here’s a brass b-flat cornet, identical in design to my Beau-Ideal, but without the engraving, stamped “F. Jaubert, Paris, Lyon & Healy sole agent, Chicago”.  The 1896 Lyon & Healy catalogue lists it with picture, likely with French piston valves.

Beautiful B-flat cornet, stamped Beau-Ideal, Chicago.  Beau-Ideal was a trade name used by Lyon & Healy for their French imports, I understand generally the ones of higher quality.  Silver plate is intact save for a bit of wear at the end of the second valve slide. Dual water keys and an aggressive shepherd’s crook; ornate engraving on mounts and bell.  Intact and original. No serial number.

Peter Adams “Antique brass Wind Instruments” shows an identical cornet in the 1896 Lyon & Healy catalogue. “Light action valves, improved short model, Gs pistons and mouthpiece”.

Here’s a b-flat bass helicon (predecessor of the Sousaphone).  It’s stamped “Elkhart Triumph, made by W. J. Gronert, Elkhart, Ind.”  And thereby hangs a tale, illustrating the convoluted state of early American instrument makers, in and out of business with one another.

William Joseph Gronert was born in Hastings, England in 1851, and served 9 years in the British army as a musician. In 1874 Gronert immigrated to the US and joined the 17th US Infantry as a musician. By 1880 he was a musician living in Elkhart, Indiana, and boarding with instrument maker Jacob Berkley.

After marriage and children, in 1885 Gronert joined C. G. Conn and eventually became his factory manager.  In 1911, Gronert founded the Elkhart Musical Instrument Co. In 1912, Robert Middleton patented  a trombone tuning slide device that was assigned to Elkhart; that device looks remarkably like one I have on a 1925 Conn bass trombone – I’ve no idea if it was the patented device, or if it was used with permission. In 1912, Gronert sued Conn for lack of payment, eventually settled in 1916.

The information I can find on Gronert pictures several cornets and a trumpet, including several 4-valve models, quite rare then and now.  No lower brass is noted at all. Instruments of the same design might be marked either Gronert or Elkhart Musical Instrument co.

Years back, I’d heard a rumor of a “sousaphone” hanging on the wall of a local scrap metal yard.  On checking, said firm was out of business, but some assets had been acquired by another.  On visiting, I spied the horn on the wall of the new firm, crushed and encased in grunge.  I asked the counter help if they’d sell it; was told that the owner would not – he thought it looked “neat”.  I pushed back, thinking that several hundred might pry it loose.  The reply was; “someone even offered him $50.00 for it, and the boss still would not sell.  I sent an offer back for $100.00, and closed the deal.

I dropped the horn off at a bumper re-plating firm to have it chemical dipped to remove the grunge; then to my repair tech (Bill Law, a good friend and my brass band’s bass trombonist). He had to take it apart down to the valve cluster, hammer it back into shape, and cobble it back together.  It now plays great.

J. W. Pepper e-flat valve trombone. Three piston valves, silver plate (much worn, especially on the bell section).  The only catalogue drawing of a Pepper  e-flat I’ve run across (circa 1904) shows a longer wrap, and a rather more modern look to my eye.  My example features a short, tight wrap. The serial number indicates 1893; it’s marked as “Premier”, which Pepper seems to have used only for their own manufacture (some horns, including e-flat valve trombones, were imported and stamped with the Pepper name).

Pepper was a Philadelphia music publisher and maker of brass instruments and drums from 1876 to about 1910, when they exited instrument making and continued as a music publisher, to the current day. The instruments are of high quality and rather sought after.  Early on, Pepper employed a number of prominent folks in the industry, including Henry Distin and Slater.

Until about the turn of the century, valve trombones, both e-flat and b-flat, were more common than slide trombones.  Music of the period often shows the same music for trombones and tenor or alto horns, the divergence of writing happening, as far as I can tell, somewhere around 1900.  And a good thing; it’s hard to imagine Henry Fillmore writing “smears” for alto horn.

An unsigned horn in B-flat (same pitch as a modern trombone or euphonium). An 1879 D. C. Hall catalogue shows an identical horn identified as a B-flat bass, alongside two very similar horns listed as baritone and tenor in B-flat; the horns were classed according to the degree of comicalness rather than the modern practice of classifying by pitch.  It is original save for the tubing from the mouthpiece receiver to the valve cluster, likely to accommodate a conversion to lengthen the tubing to modern “low” pitch – a longer tuning slide, the simplest conversion, would have run into the bell. It plays wonderfully, with an “Irish tenor” sound when used with a large euphonium mouthpiece (a Schilke 52E2) with a tenor trombone shank. The quick, short throw valves are a delight.

In his Allen, Hall & Quinby Instruments, Robb Stewart shows a close to identical B- bass dating to 1858.  D. C. Hall, J. L. Allen and the Quinby brothers were early Boston makers, in and out of business with one another. Here’s an excerpt from Robb’s description:

“This was a time of great creativity among the early US makers, greatly influenced by European designs, but almost always in a uniquely American style.   Improvements were constantly being made acoustically and ergonomically.  Of the three designs pictured here, these are the most comfortable to hold in playing position.  Compared with top action levers, the arc of the lever is much more shallow, giving the finger tips the feeling that they are pushing it straight down rather than following the arc.  The same design was soon applied to cornets and there too, became the dominant style among Boston makers and the less expensive European copies made for the US market.  The two earliest cornets of this style that I know of were made later but before 1862: a D.C. Hall cornet in C in the Brussels MIM and Eb sopranos by Isaac Fiske that are featured on this site.

“The “Allen” valves with flat windways as seen in the photo below also add to the playing ease.  The levers only move slightly more than 1/4″ with a very light touch.  This was the main goal of this design and it works very well indeed.”

Penzel-Muller was established in New York City in the 1890, by two German immigrants, and had a long and successful run producing clarinets to compete with the finest imports.  The firm seems to have never manufactured brass instruments; those labeled Penzel-Muller were unlabeled imports stamped by the firm.  The current example likely was made between 1899 and 1916.

It is in high pitch with a tenor trombone shank; the sound is close to a modern British baritone.  Good original condition with tight valves, but little of the original silver plate remains.

Played euphonium Friday night in a concert with the Phoenix Pioneer Band, a re-creation of the turn of the century Phoenix town band. We opened with a rag, credited to Will Huff, and published by Fillmore brothers.  And there-in hangs a tale.

Henry was the son of one of the two Fillmore brothers, a firm of religious music publishers in Cincinnati. As a youth, Henry mastered piano and violin, and then the slide trombone. His religious family tried to wean him from the trombone, viewed in the day as an instrument of the Devil – it was prominent in the music of dives, honky-tonks, and places not mentioned in polite company.  Henry was not to be dissuaded, continuing with the trombone and eventually doubling down: he took up with an exotic dancer, and together they ran away to the circus, Henry playing trombone and soon conducting and composing music for the circus band, and the dancer…. dancing.

Eventually, Henry and family reconciled; he and the exotic dancer (now his wife) moved back home, and Fillmore Brothers published an extraordinary volume of Henry Fillmore compositions. So many compositions, in fact, that Henry used at least nine pseudonyms to avoid suspicions of his trying to corner the market.

One of those pseudonyms was Will Huff.

Then, Henry chanced to meet the real Will Huff, who turned out to be himself a musician and band composer, living nearby and published by a rival house in Henry’s own Cincinnati.  One imagines a somewhat awkward conversation. Seemingly, they worked it out, for Fillmore Brothers soon began publishing music by Will Huff as well.

So when one encounters music by Will Huff, published by Fillmore Brothers, one might not know for sure who wrote it.

(If this isn’t arcane enough for you, the one-time E-flat tuba with the Brass Band of Columbus, Paul E. Bierley, authored (after much research) The Music of Henry Fillmore and Will Huff, as well as Hallelujah Trombone!, a biography of Henry. Paul sorts much of it out.)