Tenor valve trombone, B-flat, high pitch, short model
Maker
C. G. Conn
Date1880 ca.
Place MadeElkhart, Indiana, United States, North America
Serial No.3620
SignedEngraved on bell: MADE BY / C. G. CONN / ELKHART / I N DDescription2 sections: valve and bell section. Brass. Three long, slender piston valves with top springs and one guidepin.
Patent #249,012, November 1, 1881, often referred to, today, as the “Stoelzel-like” valve.
This rare trombone with modified Stoelzel valves, from the collections of the National Music Museum, was made by the C. G. Conn company of Elkhart, Indiana, about 1880. Often seen on European valved brass instruments made between 1818 and the mid-nineteenth century, the German Stoelzel valve is characteristically long and narrow, with the bottoms of the valve casings serving as windways to the next valve and bell. Only a few instruments with Conn's modified version of the Stoelzel valve (patent #249,012) are known to survive, including this trombone, several tubas, and a helicon.
DimensionsApproximate:
Body section: 585 mm long from mouthpiece to end of water key; 200 mm wide; 65 mm deep
Bell Section: 655 long; 175 mm wide; 190 mm deep
ProvenancePurchased from Henry Meredith, Arva, Ontario, Canada, 1992.
Published References"Rare Piano Makes Its Debut… Many Important Instruments Acquired Again in 1992." _The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter_ 20, No. 2 (January 1993): 1-4.
Banks, Margaret Downie. _Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Conn Company_. 1994. (p. 18).
“1992 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum.” _Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society_ 12, No. 1 (February 1993): 9.
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Tom and Cindy Lillibridge, 1992
Object number05383
On View
Not on view
1870-1910 ca.
