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While giving master-classes at a local middle school and high school, the band director asked me to identify an old instrument in their instrument closet. I looked like a miniature front-action euphonium with a forward bell that took a small trumpet/horn type mouthpiece. I immediately identified it as an alto horn. We checked the key and it was in Eb.

I'm thinking this has got to be either a Conn or King. There are no markings on the horn. I know it's impossible for any of you to identify it without seeing it. I just want to know if Conn and or King made a horn like this back in the day. The band program at the school is only about 30 years old but that might not relate over to the alto horn's age.

Yes, both Conn and King made alto horns like this. I have seen Olds and other brands too. They were also available with separate slides for Eb and F.

Sometimes known as "blattweasels".

If it's a Conn, and post c.1925, there ought to be a model number on the leadpipe reciever.

Off topic but still about the alto horn. In the 1980's we used an alto horn as the high voice in a tuba ensemble in Baltimore. This worked out well and gave the ensemble a greater range. We had an excellent horn player that could make the alto horn sing.

Mark

When I saw your post, I immediately went down to the shop to have a look as a little alto horn I have hanging on the wall... thinking it might be a King or Conn. Well.... it took a while to figure out what it was because the engraving is not on the back of the bell where it normally is. It's engraved inside the rim of the bell at the bottom edge. It's an Olds Ambassador... Fullerton, California. The serial number is 580080. This ones appears to in the key of F with slides that pull out to convert it to Eb.

Also known as an altonium, peck horn, and in the UK: tenor horn.

Paul M wrote:Does anyone know anything about the old Conn alto horns?

FWIW I always thought the early ones have a nice sound, when played with something like an original Conn deep cup Alto mouthpiece. I have one made in 1914. They are VERY different horns than mellophones, and are more like the piccolo trumpets of the tuba world. Like piccolo trumpets, they often have some intonation quirks. I've got a Mt. Vernon Bach alto mouthpiece that I like to use, and the old Conns were pretty well made horns.