Identifying an old trombone

[Jane]

Hi, I am currently in the possession of an old trombone, and I'm trying to find out more about it. This instrument belongs to my trombone professor, who also doesn't know much about it, and I thought this might be a good place to come to for some answers. Here's what I do know:

The bell inscription identifies it as a "Carl Fischer New York American Model", with serial number 25664. I know that Carl Fischer horns were stencil horns, and thus made by another company, but that begs the question of *which* other company.

The horn itself has some interesting features.
- There is an intentional bend in the bell section leading up to the tuning slide.
- The instrument comes with two tuning slides. When tuning to A=440, one tuning slide appears to put the instrument in Bb, and the other appears to put the instrument in A (although it's a pretty sharp A).
- It has no slide lock, and no screw between the bell section and the slide. However it does have a spit valve.
- The inner slide has stockings, and they appear to be separate pieces of a different metal attached to the tubing. While modern slides just have a little bump at the stocking, there is a distinctive ridge here.
- There is a piece of wood attached to the first slide brace, where the left hand goes. However, I can't tell if it's original to the horn.
- The mouthpiece that comes with it has a very thin and completely flat rim.

The other thing I have to work with is the case. I'm assuming the case is original, as it has a separate compartment for the extra tuning slide, but I have no proof. The case is leather and instead of opening on the long side, opens with a "lid" at the bell end. The lid has a logo on it, and from this logo it appears the case was made by Maulbetsch & Whittemore between 1893 and 1920.

Anyway, this is a fascinating instrument, and I'd love to learn more about it. I'm not sure how to attach pictures here, so I'm sharing this Google Photos link, which I hope will work. https://photos.app.goo.gl/x1DER9UFJ5VK14WF7.

[Doug Elliott]

The tuning slides are "high pitch" and "low pitch" which were both used before pitch standardizaton happened. I have a Vega trombone from Boston with high and low tuning slides. I'm not sure the years of any of that, but I suspect the teens or early 20's. I can't find any reference to who made the Carl Fischer instruments, or even if they were domestic or imported. I suspect that all of the dual-tuning-slide instruments were made here, but I don't have any real basis for that.

[BGuttman]

It looks exactly like a York I tested many years ago.

Horn-u-copia shows a 1917 York trombone that looks a lot like your pictures.

You may find it is very flat because it uses an ultra small shank mouthpiece and a normal small shank sticks out too far.