Title: Tenor Trombone

Maker: C. G. Conn

Model: Artists’ Model

Date: c. 1876-1897

Geography: Elkhart, Indiana and Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Material: Brass

Serial Number: 411 stamped on inner and outer slides; 132178 stamped on water key, which is not original to this instrument

Accession Number: GL-063_A4-04

Provenance: Founding Greenleaf Donation from Conn Museum, 1969

Description

Key: B-flat

Pitch: Low

Finish: Silver-plated, burnished

Lacquer: No

Engraving: Engraved bell with “MADE / BY / C. G. CONN / ELKHART, IND. & / WORCESTER, / MASS.” inside an art palette shape, surrounded by foliage on a checkered, stippled background that extends around the front and sides of the bell.

Mouthpiece: TBD

Accessories: No, but might have originally come with a shorter tuning slide.

Case: No

Notes:

Tuning slide in bell
No slide lock
The serial number 411 is stamped on the inner and outer slides.
One water key which is not original to this instrument, stamped with serial number 132178.
Featured in “Elkhart's Brass Roots” exhibition of 1994 (item #15). The instrument is described on page 30 of the exhibition catalog, which states, “The serial number of this and other Worcester-era trombones falls far short of the range normally associated with this time period. Were these early trombones manufactured within the first few years of the company's existence, but not engraved until after Conn bought Fiske's factory in Worcester in 1886 or did Conn utilize a special serial number sequence for some, but not all, of his Worcester instruments, the documentation for which was lost in the 1910 factory fire?” (Source: “Elkhart's Brass Roots,” 1994, Margaret Downie Banks)