Expert: Kenton Scott - 9/7/2009

Question
We have an old German Trumpet--looks like three generations back-- which would place it somewhere around 1890---or could be before.  It stayed in Germany until about 1991 when  it was passed to us because no more heirs lived in Germany.  It is not in good shape and is in a cloth brown carrying bag with a leather handle.  I cannot find any name, ensignia or identifying marks---but then, I do not know where to look exactly.  We would love to "place" it in history and see if we can determine who made the trumpet and where (family all resided in Worms, Germany in later years).  Would appreciate any advice on where to look or who to send pictures to for help.

thanks,  Linda Z

Answer
Unless something lucky happens this is likely to be a needle in a haystack.  Sometimes there is a unique characteristic that stands out, but often different makers use the same design and ideas.  You can start looking through the catalog on Horn-u-copia.net, (http://www.horn-u-copia.net/catalog.php), but there are thousands of trumpets on there.  You might also want to try cleaning off tarnish and see if you can find some engraving on it.