Gilmore & Co. Eb SopranoValve Bugle
I restored this instrument in 2002 for Dan Rossi and took the
photos using my first digital camera, so the files are fairly
small. My photography was getting a little better, and better
yet with my second camera which took much larger files.
The restoration was fairly straightforward, the main challenge
was to make the tuning mouthpipe and guessing what how it
might have looked. I've never seen another example like this,
so it was largely guesswork based on my experience with other
Boston makers. As I recall another challenge was mounting
the major parts straight. The finished instrument shown in the
third photograph looks as if the bell and valve section are not
installed using much care, but I assure you that I took pains to
get it the way it had been based on the "footprints" left by the
brass flanges.
More importantly, I'm featuring this valve bugle because of its
rarity and somewhat mysterious circumstances of its origins.
The owner of this company was indeed Patrick Gilmore, the
countries most famous band leader and cornet soloist at the
time (1866). Gilmore had previously been in the publishing
business, but upon returning with his band from Civil War
duty, he established a short lived (1864 to 1866) partnership
with Samuel Graves and two of his sons at 18 Harvard Place.
I'm quite sure that Gilmore never dirtied his hands with the
actual instrument making, but rather was an investor in a
company that allowed several experienced makers that were
having trouble with the business end, continue their
production. The last two photos below show a very similar
instrument, belonging to Jeff Stockham, made in the same
shop a year or two earlier. This shop location had previously
been occupied not only by members of the Graves family, but
also E.G. Wright, J.L. Allen, D.C. Hall, Henry Esbach, Louis
Hartmann and the Huttl brothers, all important Boston brass
instrument makers. In 1867, these partners moved in to
Wright's shop at 71 Sudbury St. and Gilmore leaves the
partnership the same year. This shop is where Boston Musical
Instrument Manufactory was established two years later. The
complete story must be even more complicated than this and
we will probably never know all the details of the business that
was being done. It would be interesting to compare some
measurements of bells and valve parts on these two and other
instruments by Boston makers to try and determine if this new
partnership tooled up to make all their own parts or were
purchasing them from other makers. I have previously
determined that the valve bugle bells made by Allen, Hall and
Quinby were made on different mandrels than those of Wright,
as were earlier instruments signed "Graves & Co. Boston".
I'm guessing that these two bells were made on that earlier
Graves bell mandrel. I have much work to do in this regard in
trying to shed more light on business relationships.
Most of what we know about these makers comes from the
research and various articles by Robert Eliason.
Click on images for larger views.
photos using my first digital camera, so the files are fairly
small. My photography was getting a little better, and better
yet with my second camera which took much larger files.
The restoration was fairly straightforward, the main challenge
was to make the tuning mouthpipe and guessing what how it
might have looked. I've never seen another example like this,
so it was largely guesswork based on my experience with other
Boston makers. As I recall another challenge was mounting
the major parts straight. The finished instrument shown in the
third photograph looks as if the bell and valve section are not
installed using much care, but I assure you that I took pains to
get it the way it had been based on the "footprints" left by the
brass flanges.
More importantly, I'm featuring this valve bugle because of its
rarity and somewhat mysterious circumstances of its origins.
The owner of this company was indeed Patrick Gilmore, the
countries most famous band leader and cornet soloist at the
time (1866). Gilmore had previously been in the publishing
business, but upon returning with his band from Civil War
duty, he established a short lived (1864 to 1866) partnership
with Samuel Graves and two of his sons at 18 Harvard Place.
I'm quite sure that Gilmore never dirtied his hands with the
actual instrument making, but rather was an investor in a
company that allowed several experienced makers that were
having trouble with the business end, continue their
production. The last two photos below show a very similar
instrument, belonging to Jeff Stockham, made in the same
shop a year or two earlier. This shop location had previously
been occupied not only by members of the Graves family, but
also E.G. Wright, J.L. Allen, D.C. Hall, Henry Esbach, Louis
Hartmann and the Huttl brothers, all important Boston brass
instrument makers. In 1867, these partners moved in to
Wright's shop at 71 Sudbury St. and Gilmore leaves the
partnership the same year. This shop is where Boston Musical
Instrument Manufactory was established two years later. The
complete story must be even more complicated than this and
we will probably never know all the details of the business that
was being done. It would be interesting to compare some
measurements of bells and valve parts on these two and other
instruments by Boston makers to try and determine if this new
partnership tooled up to make all their own parts or were
purchasing them from other makers. I have previously
determined that the valve bugle bells made by Allen, Hall and
Quinby were made on different mandrels than those of Wright,
as were earlier instruments signed "Graves & Co. Boston".
I'm guessing that these two bells were made on that earlier
Graves bell mandrel. I have much work to do in this regard in
trying to shed more light on business relationships.
Most of what we know about these makers comes from the
research and various articles by Robert Eliason.
Click on images for larger views.