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Steve Dillon graciously shared this photo with me, which shows the tuba section of Arthur Pryor's Band in 1904. On the left is Herman Conrad, and on the right is - we think - Gus Helleberg. And in the middle is a casualty of the torn photo (although that's Pryor standing in front of the middle tuba player)!

So, two questions I'd love to have you weigh in on:
1. What can you tell me about the horn Conrad is holding (again, on the left)?
2. Can you confirm that it is Helleberg on the right?

That looks kind of like a Richardson Holton but with rotors. Interesting.

Looks like we might have found a match for Conrad's tuba. Check out this BBb horn built by Const. Riedl of Nurnberg (photo courtesy of horn-u-copia online):

While there a similarities in the wrap, the tuba in the picture appears to be a much shorter horn with a lower mouthpipe.

I may own this very tuba. It's a Sander CC. Sander tubas were known to be used by Geib and Helleberg. Here's the photo of mine. It turned up in Navy stores sometime in the 1960s. I recently purchased it from Robert Woodbury who acquired it while he was studying at Cincinnati Conservatory with Sammy Greene.

I played Sam's Sander the day I bought my Vienna style Alex F, which was also owned by the Robert Woodbury that Sam mentioned, I believe.

It has the 2+3 fourth valve, but the response and sound were really great. The tuba is light as a feather. Despite it being over 100 years old, I remember being struck by how well it played. It's in incredible shape. I can't thank Sam enough for hosting me for an hour and letting me play on some of his own creations as well as this very old tuba.