Bb Bass by Allen & Hall, Boston

The Boston City Directory indicates that the partnership between J.L Allen and D.C. Hall at 334 Washington St. existed only in 1861. The name shield above and the first photo is an early example of a style of rotary valve lever that became dominant in the US market by the late 1860s, made by other domestic makers, but also inexpensive copies made in Europe. The second and third photo below are an instrument and its maker's shield shown indicating Allen's address at 17 Harvard Place, where he did business from 1853 through 1856, making it at least 5 years older than the first bass.  These were certainly inspired by earlier European instruments with mechanical linkage to the rotary valves, but a unique American design.

Click on image below for larger views.

Both Graves and Fiske made some instruments with side action levers before, but the design involved tilting the valves, necessitating an extra 90 degree tight curve redirecting each valve tube.  The levers were simpler, but these curves complicated the design and construction.  

The fifth photo shows another version of the Bb bass that was made in Allen's shop at 18 Harvard Place sometime during the years 1857 through 1860, with top action levers on the side in a similar configuration to the Graves and Fiske instruments mentioned above.  The next is an image from D.C. Hall's 1864 catalog showing the same side action levers in a different position and held with the bell tilting to the opposite side.  While this design is much less convenient to hold in playing position, it had some popularity and was made by Allen, E.G. Wright and Graves & Co. in those years.  

This was a time of great creativity among the early US makers, greatly influenced by European designs, but almost always in a uniquely American style.   Improvements were constantly being made acoustically and ergonomically.  Of the three designs pictured here, these are the most comfortable to hold in playing position.  Compared with top action levers, the arc of the lever is much more shallow, giving the finger tips the feeling that they are pushing it straight down rather than following the arc.  The same design was soon applied to cornets and there too, became the dominant style among Boston makers and the less expensive European copies made for the US market.  The two earliest cornets of this style that I know of were made later but before 1862: a D.C. Hall cornet in C in the Brussels MIM and Eb sopranos by Isaac Fiske that are featured on this site.  

The "Allen" valves with flat windways as seen in the photo below also add to the playing ease.  The levers only move slightly more than 1/4" with a very light touch.  This was the main goal of this design and it works very well indeed.  The last two photos show the bass as found in an attic in New York and during restoration. It was originally presented to me with the entire third valve tubing missing along with some important valve parts and damage included some cracking and one valve stem badly bent where the bearing was missing.  The cost of the restoration would have likely been too much for most collectors, but I consider this a fairly important addition to my collection.  I asked the previous owner to climb back into the attic where it was found and look around for some of the missing parts, hoping that the valve parts would appear.  They didn't, but I was more than a little happy that he found the entire third valve tubing assembly and it was in pretty good condition.

This instrument is 26 3/4" tall, the bell rim diameter is 9 1/2" and the bore measures .545".  The earlier baritone is 28" tall.