Solid Silver Soprano by J. Lathrop Allen, New York

Joseph Lathrop Allen moved to New York City after a short partnership in with D.C. Hall in Boston in 1861 and first appeared in city directories there in 1862. In his 1979 Early American Brass Makers, Dr. Robert Eliason estimated this instrument to have been made in about 1870 although it is now thought that it is the silver cornet that was reported in newspaper articles as given to George R. Choate by the officers of New York’s 35th Regiment in December of 1861. The address engraved on the bell garland is not among those listed in the New York City directories, so it seems likely that Allen occupied a shop at 111 East 18th Street for a short time in 1861 and moved before the 1862 directory was compiled. This address is is roughly four blocks from his home listed for 1862, between Union Square and Gramercy Park.

He continued to be listed as a musical instrument maker in New York until 1869, although only four instruments are known from this era. The others are a Bb cornet with four standard rotary valves with side action levers, an Eb tuba with bell over the shoulder and a French horn with Berliner valves in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The latter appears to be of German design and make, but Allen may have assembled it or modified it in some way. The tuba appears to be made by E.G. Wright & Co. This is especially interesting because all known examples of tubas with bells over the shoulder made by Allen, Allen & Hall and Hall & Quinby appear to have the same bell and large body parts as those made by E.G. Wright & Co. The difference being the valves and levers on those conform to those seen in the Boston made instruments by Allen, Hall and Quinby. The valves and levers on the Allen, NY tuba appear the same as those on Wright’s instruments.

The Bb cornet has rotary valves very similar in design to those used by other New York makers such as Moennig and Stark who were likely importing assemblies from German makers. This cornet also features valve lever and brace designs copied from or inspired by those of Isaac Fiske, which Moennig and Stark also emulated.

We are very fortunate that the silver soprano has been preserved along with two keyed bugles that had belonged to George Choate by J. Lloyd Davis, a collector in Prairie Village, Kansas. He purchased the three in 1969 from what we might call a “picker”, who bought antiques at estate sales and sold them to dealers and collectors through antiques publications. Davis kept thorough records for everything that he purchased and his collections were inherited by his son Curt. Raising funds for his grandchildren’s education, Curt sold this trio along with all documentation to collector Steve Ward, where they safely reside today. A thorough examination of these three instruments and the career of George Choate was published in Volume 40, 2014 of the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society by Eliason and Davis.

It is made of Sterling silver or similar alloy, one of only five solid silver instruments with valves extant that were made in the United States. Although newspaper articles and advertisements that Allen was making all silver (and gold) instruments by 1858, this is the only example known from his shop. It seems unlikely that he had the ability to make all the parts in his newly established shop and he may have purchased the valves, crooks and/or bell from Boston. D.C. Hall, who had taken over Allen’s shop in Boston, may have continued to make instruments in all silver, but none are known to exist. A few instruments do exist with all silver trim, such as the C cornet with 4th ascending valve in Dan Rossi’s collection (pictured below), made about 1859. Also, safely preserved in The Henry Ford Museum, Rhodolph Hall’s famous solid gold “Magic Echo” cornet was made by Hall & Quinby in 1866.

Interestingly, the valves are a slight variation of those seen from the Allen, Hall and Quinby shop in Boston. The internal stop design is the same, but they are larger diameter, shorter in length and the shape of the flattened windways is slightly different. In the first photo below, you can see the slight differences in the shape and proportions of the valve casings and ports. The difference is better seen in the second group of photos, which shows two views each of rotors from instruments by Allen, New York, D.C. Hall (about 1864), Henry Lehnert (about 1870) and B.F. Richardson (1854). At least three unsigned instruments exist with valves more closely matching this instrument, all four valve cornets in Bb. One of those is featured in another web page on this site. Without additional evidence, we must entertain the idea that Allen did make these parts in his New York shop without the help of his Boston associates. After all, he had been making brass instruments for over 20 years, including his uniquely designed rotary valves for the previous 10 or more.

In the New York instrument, the passages through the valve rotors are shorter and deeper than those in the D.C. Hall cornet, although the difference is only .02” in each dimension. The Allen instrument is smaller bore through the valves slides at .428” compared with those of the Hall at .434”. The last two rotors pictured above, from Eb and C cornets from Lehnert, Philadelphia and B.F. Richardson, Boston have bore sizes .432” and .435” respectively. There exist a number of other examples of instruments with Allen style valves, mostly unsigned, that appear to be German made for the US market or had parts made there. We must also consider that the better known US makers were having parts made in German shops that were more firmly established in the industry.

Other dimensions are: overall length 11 5/8” (11” to bell curve) and bell diameter, 4 5/8'“.