Expert: Kenton Scott - 1/28/2008

Question
QUESTION: I recently inherited a jw york and sons french horn. It is sterling silver in near mint condition.I have all the extra interchangable parts but do not have the original case.The model number is 47598. I have not found any others like it on ebay and other sites.Where could i find a value of this french horn?

ANSWER: Are you sure it is a French horn and not a mellophone?

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QUESTION: I was told it is a french horn. How do you tell the difference?

Answer
A York French horn would look something like this: http://www.horn-u-copia.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1129253834

while a York Mellophone would look something like this:
http://www.horn-u-copia.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1107935522

A French horn USUALLY has rotary valves, and a mellophone almost always has piston valves.  But the main difference is that the French horn has twice the length of tubing than the Mellophone.