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I recently found a silver plate sousaphone with Emil K Blessing on the bell. It has a 24 inch bell and is a BBb horn with 3valves. Based on company name history, it likely was made in the 1920's. I have not found the serial number yet. Does anyone know anything about Blessing Sousas?

I'll post pictures in a few days, but one thing I noticed is the third valve tubing has a loop that folds back. I've seen a similar loop on York tubas. Could this be a York stencil? I've read there was a relationship between York and Blessing in the early years.

I have been working on this sousaphone, trying figure it out. The bore at the second valve is 0.686 inches. Conn 36K valves fit perfectly into the valve casings and appear to be exactly the same. The bell screws also fit a 36K. These two facts makes me think it is a Conn clone. (Bloke may be right.) The one difference I've found so far is the mouthpiece is a euro shank.

Here are pictures of the Blessing Sousaphone. Note the gold wash bell.