| Restoration of an Important American Tuba: Graves at Wright |
The signature on this Eb tuba is extremely rare: "Made by
Graves & Co. at E.G. Wright's Manufactory Boston".
This was made during a time that principals of Graves &
Co. were sharing quarters and presumably tooling and
employees with E.G. Wright. The design of this
instrument is very much like tubas by Wright and a bit
different from others known by Graves from the time. I
suspect that the shop was a little crowded, but they must
have gotten on well. Members of the Graves family
shared a shop with E.G. Wright from 1856 through 1859
and again after 1862 and ultimately, in 1869 the two
companies merged forming Boston Musical Instrument
Manufactory. It is thought that this tuba was built in the
earlier period or even before, while Graves and Co. may
have been struggling to get established in Boston.
Restoration of a large instrument in this condition is a very
expensive job, but this very rare tuba was an easy call. It
must have been played for many years, suffering damage
and numerous repairs. Solid German silver instruments
such as this are more prone to cracking than brass both
from deterioration and damage. It had several ancient
patches covering cracked tubing and even more splits
needing patching. You can see in the fifth photo to the
left, that the bell had been cut short to remove a severely
cracked section and attached with a crudely made ferrule.
The arrows point to the original position of the large brace
flange and that on the shortened bell. There is no practical
way to re-attach a piece to the bell end, so I had to make a
large ferrule which would look like the original an fit the
bell stem and bell end. The balance of this job was
straightforward, involving careful dent removal after
disassembly and reassembling to look as it did originally.
The valves are a bit worn, but good mechanical condition
with all the original mechanism. The owner of this tuba,
Mark Elrod, was rewarded with a good playing tuba of
great historical significance.
Click on images for larger views.
Graves & Co. at E.G. Wright's Manufactory Boston".
This was made during a time that principals of Graves &
Co. were sharing quarters and presumably tooling and
employees with E.G. Wright. The design of this
instrument is very much like tubas by Wright and a bit
different from others known by Graves from the time. I
suspect that the shop was a little crowded, but they must
have gotten on well. Members of the Graves family
shared a shop with E.G. Wright from 1856 through 1859
and again after 1862 and ultimately, in 1869 the two
companies merged forming Boston Musical Instrument
Manufactory. It is thought that this tuba was built in the
earlier period or even before, while Graves and Co. may
have been struggling to get established in Boston.
Restoration of a large instrument in this condition is a very
expensive job, but this very rare tuba was an easy call. It
must have been played for many years, suffering damage
and numerous repairs. Solid German silver instruments
such as this are more prone to cracking than brass both
from deterioration and damage. It had several ancient
patches covering cracked tubing and even more splits
needing patching. You can see in the fifth photo to the
left, that the bell had been cut short to remove a severely
cracked section and attached with a crudely made ferrule.
The arrows point to the original position of the large brace
flange and that on the shortened bell. There is no practical
way to re-attach a piece to the bell end, so I had to make a
large ferrule which would look like the original an fit the
bell stem and bell end. The balance of this job was
straightforward, involving careful dent removal after
disassembly and reassembling to look as it did originally.
The valves are a bit worn, but good mechanical condition
with all the original mechanism. The owner of this tuba,
Mark Elrod, was rewarded with a good playing tuba of
great historical significance.
Click on images for larger views.