1850\'s Antique Trombone ~ Made by G. Martin - New York Earliest Martin Trombone
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1850\'s Antique Trombone ~ Made by G. Martin - New York Earliest Martin Trombone:
$710.00
\'We are passionate about providing the best’ RARE!! Antique Trombone made by G. Martin - New York ~ Made in the early 1850’s!! ~ Superb condition for its age!!! BEAUTIFUL DETAIL ~ PLAYS!! Wonderful and IMPORTANT piece of American history! Model G. Martin - - -VIDEO
View on YouTube Description Up for sale is an incredibly well crafted, and amazingly rare piece of American Musical Instrument History!!! Made in New York, BEFORE the Civil War! This is where it ALL started!! The company so many has come to know and love!! The seeds of such horns like the Martin Committee played by greats Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and so many more!! Check it out!!! Condition This instrument is in really superb condition, especially considering the 165 years it has been around!! There are no indications that the instrument was ever really badly damaged. One of the cross braces on the bell has had a broken silver solder joint, and when we got it had a period repair. Rather than pulling the horn completely apart to restore, we cleaned up the period repair, and left it. It is holding well. The condition of the bell bow, bell, and handslide outer tubes and crook is superb! The decorative snakes are also very well preserved. The engraving on the bell, both makers mark, and decor around the garland are clean and crisp. The slide does move freely. It is an older slide, and is much heavier than most modern instruments. In typical ‘sackbut’ fashion, the cross brace on the outer slide has one end not soldered. That was intentional due to the tolerances back in the 1850’s and before. As mentioned above however, we did replace the tubes to allow a musician to use this instrument, as compared to the original tubes that were painfully slow… While this slide does work, and will allow a musician the ability to work through quick passages, it’s important to note that the weight of the slide does prohibit what we would consider a ‘10 out of 10’ on a modern handslide. I’d give this slide a solid 7 out of 10, on the modern standards scale. How does it play?! This horn actually plays VERY well!! It is pretty amazing that comes out of this 165 year old instrument!! I can absolutely imagine someone genuinely enjoying this horn on a performance today! Obviously, you’d have to work with the pitch of B as opposed to Bb, however in an academic setting, this would be wonderful for playing solos and excerpts from the period. Of course the other situations where this would work well would be performing period works, or simply adding an extension to place the key of the instrument in Bb. This wouldn’t be terribly overwhelming, however the bell placement with the slide positions may provide some mental exercise. History Robert Godfrey ‘Gottfried’ Martin (b Dresden c1835; d c1900) began the ‘Martin Musical Instrument’ firm in 1852 and had a series of partnerships which resulted in the many name changes listed below: 1) 1852-c1856 G. Martin, New York
2) 1867-1870 Martin & Slater
3) 1871-1874 Slater & Martin
4) 1872-1880 Martin, Pollmann & Co. (31 Courtlandt between
the years of 1872 and 1879)
5) 1879-1884 Martin Brothers
6) 1884-1910 an interim period
7) 1910-p1950 Martin Band Instrument Company As you will notice in the chronological order of things, the instrument we are offering here represents an instrument made at the VERY BEGINNING of Martin’s incredible legacy in this industry!! When we came into this instrument, we didn’t even realize this was made in the United States!! We speculated, because of the intricate details, and style of manufacture techniques, that this was imported from Markneukirchen, Germany. Discovering that in fact this was made in the United States, and that this horn PRE-DATES the American Civil War was an absolute incredible discovery for us! The Martin name in the musical instrument world is so well known, and so important to the development of our industry, that finding one of the earliest pieces connecting to the ORIGINAL ‘old man’ Martin is surreal, and important! Specifications This instrument would have been considered a boheimith during it’s time, as far as bore size goes. It’s considered by today’s standards ‘technically’ a large bore trombone. Although, this certainly would have been considered a Bass trombone at the time. The bell diameter is 9”. As you will see in the photo’s, the bell has a HUGE bell garland or ‘kranz’!! (Around 3.25” deep) EVERYTHING about this instrument was manufactured using ‘seamed’ tubing. Obviously, this was typical of the time. Seamless tubing came around much later. But it is FASCINATING to see the amount of quality these makers exercised back during this time. If you’re not following the difference. A seamless tube (practiced by most manufacturers today on almost everything brass instrument related) is a tube that is manufactured by pulling down and stretching a larger tube to the size you want. On seamed tubing, the craftsperson will take a sheet of brass, fold it over, seam it, and hand burnish it into a perfectly round tube! This entire instrument was manufactured from sheets of brass and nickel silver! Everything on this instrument is all original, with the exception of the inner handslide tubes. The tubes were replaced with modern replicas, (using seamless tube, and chrome plated) to better facilitate a musician using this instrument. This instrument is keyed in what would have been typical at the time, the key of B. This does take a typical modern large shank mouthpiece just fine. Conclusion Don’t miss out on an opportunity to bring home a truly special piece of American and Musical history!!! Instruments from important makers, and of this age just simply don’t come up for sale very often! We have placed an incredibly low reserve on this instrument. FAR below what we honestly feel the value is for such an incredible piece. We are happy to have done the research and provided a musician or collector some of the valuable information, and now wish it to find a wonderful home!! Perhaps this instrument will inspire the interest of a young musician to learn more about the history of their instrument!! Good luck and happy offerding! ;o) A Special letter from our President and Founder: Thank you so much for taking the time to view our sale. My staff and I take great pride in what we do. Over the years this industry has changed drastically. Mom and Pop shops are nearly a thing of the past, and with that our industry bleeds. We are striving to preserve the character of a true American pastime. I started my shop in the basement of my house back in 2004 with a vision that no matter what the odds, I would be able to provide musicians and families around the world with the same care and attention that seems to be disappearing. There is no reason that because you are purchasing an item on the internet that the store you are working with shouldn\'t treat you with the same respect as if you live in our neighborhood and walked in our door. I am proud to say that my staff also believes in offering this positive one-on-one experience. We are blessed to have grown into the company we are today. We are all passionate about what we do. It is important for you to know that each and every customer we deal with is very important to keeping my mission a reality. We are here to help and offer our expertise to make your experience the best we possibly can. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask us!! We take great pride in our positive response on and strive to continue the experiences we\'ve shared with past customers with you! If you know anyone interested in purchasing musical equipment, or are in need of repair service, we hope you might consider helping to spread the word about what we do. Thank you so much! Sincerely, Michael T. Corrigan President B.A.C. Horn Doctor LLC Terms We appreciate you taking the time to read all of our terms prior to offerding. We WILL accept international offerding. Shipping in the lower 48 U.S. will be $45.00. Insurance covering the winning offer amount or purchase price is included with our shipping price. International Shipping costs will vary. With larger items (trumpets, saxophones, trombones) one may expect at least $85.00 to most locations. Mouthpieces and small accessories typically run approx. $18-$25 depending on the destination. Again, Insurance covering the winning price is included. We accept: PayPal, all forms of Major Credit Card, and direct money wire transfers. RETURN POLICY: All instruments are sold as is and we will only issue returns if the instrument was damaged during shipping or if the instrument was grossly misrepresented in its descriptions and pictures. We will also only accept returns if it is within 7 days or receipt of the instrument and if authorized by a B.A.C. Representative. If you have any questions about our new policy please feel free to contact us. CUSTOMS POLICY: Please do not ask us to commit Customs Fraud -- we WILL NOT alter any of our shipping paperwork or monetary receipts for the purpose of evading or minimizing international import taxes. We encourage you to build any customs and taxes into your high offer. (for example, if your budget is $200 and it will cost $45 to import that item, please offer $155 knowing that the rest of your budget will go toward the import of the item.) Again, we have an excellent response rating. We have one of the best ratings in the community for accurate descriptions -- we go the extra mile taking many high resolution photos to win your confidence in our description. If there are any questions at all, please do not hesitate to use the \"Question and Answer\" feature attached to this listing prior to offerding. We pride ourselves in the ability to accurately respond to these questions promptly. B.A.C. Horn Doctor Inc. is a qualified professional service center and employs knowledgeable musicians and experts in vintage instruments. While on occasion we may miss something, we ask that you read the entire description. If you have any questions at all or information that would further enhance our sales, please email us at info(at)bacmusic(dot)com. Good luck and happy offerding!! Photos
1850\'s Antique Trombone ~ Made by G. Martin - New York Earliest Martin Trombone:
$710.00