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Re: Michael! Keller - Where You At? :-)
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:50 pm
by bisontuba
Re: Michael! Keller - Where You At? :-)
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 5:55 pm
by windshieldbug
Wade,
Thanks for the photo, don't have that one yet.
J.W. Pepper started building instruments in a Philadelphia factory set up by Henry Distin before he went off to Williamsport.
The first Standard I've seen is a cornet S# 18717.
J.W. Pepper became J.W. Pepper & Son in 1910.
The serial numbers were in the 521xx range at that time.
It seems that Pepper stopped building instruments about the same time but kept the same model names and started putting them on stencil horns.
This could well be one of the last horns they made; I've seen some later, but not a bunch.
And your observations are correct!
Re: Michael! Keller - Where You At? :-)
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:21 am
by windshieldbug
Thanks, but I'm starting to divest.
Appreciate the offer, really!
As far as quality goes, since Pepper and Distin had a relationship, it is possible that Distin was the stencil provider for many models. Pepper's original numbers dovetail with Distin/Philadelphia's, and include horns marked "Henry Distin/Maker/for/J.W. Pepper" and "Henry Distin/importer/for/J.W.Pepper". Pepper had a separate "Importers" line both before and after 1910. Distin retired in 1890, but the firm, under the name "Henry Distin Manufacturing Co.", was managed by Brua C. Keefer, Jr., lawyer and son of the major stockholder. In 1909 Keefer purchased the company, and the timing of the switch may be no accident.
It's a long way of saying that it may be a Distin-made bell!