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Hi there,

I know the majority of you guys live in the States, but I'll give it a try anyway:

Does anyone have information about serial numbers on the dissappeared Belgian brand Mahillon ?
They made brass instruments for more than 100 years I think, and during some period they used bells made by Meinl-Weston.
Mr. Howard Johnson played one before Meinl-Weston created a brand new version of the Mahillon especially for him.

Most of the Mahillon tuba's, euphoniums, helicons etc. have now a second career in decorating local band rehearsal rooms.
Our band however, has one BBb 3+1 piston valve that plays surprisingly well, and I wondered how old it was.
The serial number on this one is 390 .

Thanks !!

I found this: http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/ujt/ujt2494.html" target="_blank . I don't know what the correlation between the Mahillons made in London and the ones made in Brussels is, but this might help.

I don't think there's much hope of accurately dating it. Mahillon instruments are discussed on this site, and it seems there is very little info to be found.

390 is probably not the serial number, since there are already 2 tubas pictured on horn-u-copia with the same number on the bell...
Mr. Mahillon stopped in 1934 but the firm finally closed only in 1999.
I started my career as a brass player on a Mahillon flugelhorn in the early 80s and although the instrument was old, it was definitely not 40 years or more.

Walter Sear could probably answer your question.
Someone here got a reply from him recently about another question.
He imported a lot of Mahillons back in the 1960s.

Mahillon dating
You can get the year of production by the markings on the bell. Below the stamped name and information, there are some symbols:

1) A letter WITHIN a star… (A = 1901 to Z = 1926)
2) A letter BELOW the star…. (A = 1927 to Z = 1952)
3) A “dot” ABOVE a letter… (A = 1953 to Z = 1978)

Hope this helps… I found it in a PDF about the Mahillon company..

PS - I understand that the serial number is written in the valve assembly....