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There was an era from around the mid 1950's (actually) into the early 80's, whereby Conn made trumpets that looked like this...

I pulled this one down to sell to someone (as a gift to their niece) as they said she would like silver, and a smaller bore would be fine.

This was before everyone's trumpets were Bach-like (actually Bach were/are "French Besson-like"), and back when various makes could easily be distinguished from a distance. (I believe that - styling-wise - American manufacturers had the MOST fun with their trombones.)

Conn's top-of-the-line trumpet (the "Connstellation") was wildly popular (nickel plated body / lacquered slides). It's appearance was very similar, but with a larger bell, and - usually - a spring trigger on the #1 slide.

Completely bright-silver plated brass instruments (such as this one) - in America - didn't really begin to become popular until - in the mid-late 1960's - Carl "Doc" Severinsen took Skitch Henderson's place as leader of the Tonight Show Band, and chose to play a ("wow...look at THAT !!!) bright silver plated Getzen Eterna Model trumpet...so (without bothering to run the serial number), I'd guess that this trumpet was probably made in the 70's (as most of them that I've encountered were epoxy lacquered - including the Connstellation Model, whereby the nickel plating on the body was coated with epoxy lacquer - and were made in the 1960's).

Of course, tuba styling never changed very much, as it would have been more costly, tubas were (well...) just tubas, and any style changes would be overwhelmed by the scale (size) of the rest of the instrument.

Not a rhetorical question but actually a REAL question:
Would this plain/sleek/functional styling seen with this Conn "Director" (entry level) trumpet from that era be referred to - style-wise - as "Mid-Century Modern" (along with the plain blond maple furniture, steel, plastic chairs, etc.), or - style-wise - be described as something else?

(fwiw...I wouldn't describe the components as "precision-fitting" - and no: not worn...but "good enough to play". This was the era when most American products began to become craptastic.)

fwiw, I dated this to 1969, which is one of the nebulous years for Conn.

I know that some york trumpets had a sleek looking narrow profile in the 20's and 30's, conn followed suit. This was charactersitc of art deco aesthetic design popular in the 20's and 30's. Proof of instruments reflecting the time period. Polished chrome was very popular in mid century modern furniture (which I also have). So yes I would say.

I took a peek at what google offers when typing in "arts and crafts" vs. "art deco" vs. "streamlined" vs. "mid-century modern.


This seems to be a good example of "mid-century modern", and (in my judgement, but not necessarily anyone's else) seems to line up the closest (home decor-wise) with the (plain) styling of this trumpet...






bloke "If this is a dumb topic, just delete."

There is an Elkhart Connstellation here that I need to clean up a little bit and sell. I chose the other thing to sell to this young man for his niece, due to it being silver and assuming his price range.

When I try to think of mid-century modern and brass instrument at the same time, I see an Olds Super trombone.*



*Please note that I less than flawless vision and no artistic sensibilities. They are still pretty cool looking.

I have a Super up in the attic as well.

I couldn't find the time to restore it to sell it to a young band director (last summer - while un-destroying hundreds of school-owned instruments), and they subsequently bought a brand new USA-made small-bore jazz trombone - the model number of which begins with a "2".

BOY! Was it a shock to see how seriously that model has degenerated. (It had a beginner model trumpet spit valve on the playing slide bow. I did some repair on that instrument for them - from "as received/new". Both outside slide tubes were "knock-kneed", and there was a 1/100 inch spacing discrepancy from end-to-end - as well as a twist - ie. not coplanar)

==============================

...so you wouldn't place the Olds "Super" within "art deco"...??

The model began c. 1935, and the art deco craze ended c. the beginning of WWII.


art deco example:

...I decided to post this separately (too many topics in one response).

This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE LOOK (rare as hell) that Olds ever offered up.
I would LOVE to have a tuba with this factory "finish" (hand hammered).

bloke wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 10:22 am ...so you wouldn't place the Olds "Super" within "art deco"...??

The model began c. 1935, and the art deco craze ended c. the beginning of WWII.

When I look at the Super I see the clean, simple lines of the braces. There is a lovely contrast between the silver and the dark, coppery color of the bell, but it’s just done once. If it were art deco I would expect more copper colored accents. While mid-century modern had it’s highest popularity after WWII, the Bauhaus school that give birth to some of its concepts was active between the wars. Hey, the last thing I am is an art historian and the last thing anyone else should do is listen to my opinions on art. I do think, however, the we can all agree that this is art deco.

I'd vote for the "Super" (trombone, trumpet, cornet) were it not for the (fake - only there for decoration) kranz (which is gorgeous, btw).

So if there were some instruments that had epoxy over silver, meaning I presume you don't have to polish it -- why don't they still do that? I would MUCH rather have an instrument I didn't have to polish, given the black state in which the NStar came back to me. The silver plate instruments I've bought have been used and I'd never buy a new one in silver plate, but the used ones were what they were.
I had a rather terrible alto horn for a while, that was covered in engraving; Keefer, I think -- but it looked cool even if I thought it sounded horrid. All I knew was it was "old."

I've never seen epoxy lacquer or any lacquer over silver plating. It just doesn't seem to bond very well, but - even though nickel plating is slicker, for some reason lacquer seems to bond pretty well to nickel plating. This would be the Connstellation trumpet, trombone, cornet of Conn, and the Tempo King trombone - which was brought out to compete with Conn, regarding the same look.

I'm being redundant, but - during that era - bright silver plating was not a popular finish. The beginning of the popularity of bright silver plating began with Doc Severinsen playing a bright silver Getzen trumpet on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Prior to that era, most silver-plated instruments featured a satin finish. This would include the Chicago Symphony York tuba, which subsequently had the crap buffed out of it and was obviously resilver-plated. I consider that to be a ruined instrument, regardless of how anyone speaks of it's playing characteristics. To make copies of thin metal is to be misguided.