Ebay and a trumpet

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Niner
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Location: Lower Alabama

Ebay and a trumpet

Post by Niner » Sun Oct 25, 2020 12:49 pm

I've got a modest collection of trumpets and cornets. None are very valuable and just about all of them I got off of ebay. Most trumpets follow a recognizable design. Some may be longer and narrower...they call them peashooters. Some may have a larger bell. There are different bore sizes and some have added things like valve triggers. They are for the most part brass and sometimes with a nickel silver finish. (There are some oddball plastic ones now days) Trumpets generally look pretty much the same one to another, as do other instruments in their own class like clarinets, trombones and flutes. But then....there are some rare engineering experiments that are really way out there.

I noticed on ebay the other day an attic find horn advertised only as a York brand for a starting bid of $65. York was a major maker in the US back in the 30's and 40's that made horns for both professionals and students. But this one was a really rare one made only 1938 to 1940. It was designed with the bell cocked off a very noticable distance on the opposite side of the valve body than normal, requiring the playing hand to reach over to manipulate the keys, and the vertical and horizontal geometry was dizzying. The idea was to make the air vibrations flow with fewer constrictions. Thus it was called the airflow.

Well... the auction took off and it sold this morning for $1675. Way out of my affordability range I might add. Even so, York airflows in more pristine condition are advertised , and probably sell, at around $4000.

Here's a youtube of a slightly shorter cornet version.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKZv-9ovzQ
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