Eb Keyed Bugle Made by E.G. Wright for Graves & Co

This keyed bugle carcass was listed for sale on Ebay with a starting bid of  $9.99 and I believe that the seller would have been happy with $25.  I'm  quite sure that the seller had no idea how much interest that there would  be in this wreck, especially considering the expense required to restore it.  

This is one of the rarest American made keyed bugles because of the fact  that it was made by Wright for Graves in Boston, presumably at the time  that Graves was closing down the operation in Winchester, NH and  planning the new facility in Boston in 1850.  Fortunately for those of us  that put importance on preserving our cultural history, Steven Ward  stepped up and committed to just that.  Dent removal and soldering  existing parts was fairly straightforward but the obvious big job was  reproducing all the missing parts.  This includes the ten keys, springs and  screws, most of the tonehole chimneys and the tuning shank assembly.  

This bugle is very similar to my E.G. Wright bugle, which made the job  of copying parts a bit easier than it would have been using photographs  and sketches only.  There was some question as to whether or not the  screw clamping device on the mouthpipe end was original, not having  seen this on an American made bugle before.  Fortunately, after removing  this part there was a clear shadow line underneath, indicating that there  had been a different reinforcing ferrule there in the past, so I reproduced  that part as well.  

For more information on Wright see Robert E. Eliason,  Early American Brass Makers, The Brass Press, 1979