Antique horn... what's it worth?

[ajh670]

Hello all,

I have an antique horn that I'm getting ready to sell. I do not know what it's worth, so I'm hoping to get some advice from y'all.

It is a fully functional sousaphone shaped baritone. It's in pretty darned good condition. It was made by Harry B. Jay, Chicago 1910-1946... 1910 established with Jay as maker, Fred Plain as backer; Adopted 'Columbia' as trade name. There is engraving on the bell that reads:

COLUMBIA
H.B. Jay Co.
Chicago

I'm interested in selling to a collector or dealer because I'm about to move (with movers doing the packing/shipping) and I don't have faith that the horn will make it unscathed. I'd rather sell it and see it get a good home than have it get damaged and scrapped.

Any assistance is apprecitated. The picture (if it loads) has a euphonium in it so you have a reference point to see the actual size of the horn.

Best,

Alan Herold

[bisontuba]

Hi-
Buescher also made a 'baritone' sousaphone....Don Harry has a silver one in like new condition, with original case--very nice horn...what is it worth?--good question...put it on ebay, and see where it goes, or contact a collector of tubas like Mike Lynch and see if he is interested.
With vintage/antique musical instruments--unlike say firearms or paintings--value can also be greatly influenced by 'how good the instrument plays.' Also, 'rarity vrs desirability' is important--for example, the alto string rotary American helicon I have listed in the For Sale section is much, much rarer than an Over The Shoulder (OTS) saxhorn in the Alto voice, but because of the desirability of OTS instruments by Civil War collectors and re-inactors (sp?), the OTS alto is valued at a much higher value than the alto helicon, even though the alto helicon is much rarer to find--again, 'rarity vrs. desirability.' I hope this makes some sense.
Harry B. Jay was an interesting maker...he was in business from 1910-1946 in Chicago. Jay was the instrument maker, and his 'backer' was Fred Plain. 'Columbia' was adopted as a trade name.
Former Ithaca College teacher Jim Linn had a very small piston Harry B. Jay CC tuba--it was even a smaller bore than the Harvey Conn tuba, but played very nice.

Best of luck.

Regards-
mark

[Lew]

I too have one of those made by Buescher. I paid $500 about 3 years ago for mine on ebay. Since $500 was the starting bid and nobody else bid on it would appear that what I paid was more than most people thought it was worth. It was worth it to me. I have played it for a couple of tuba christmases and really enjoy it.

Harry B. Jay was a much smaller volume manufacturer, although I understand that Louis Armstrong was known to prefer to play on a Harry Jay cornet. Because it is made by Jay it's probably rarer than the Buescher version of these, but that may not have much impact on value. Bloke's approach is as good as any way to estimate the value of something like this. Since they are really just novelty items I would suspect that the market for these is not very large and therefore the price that it would be expected to sell for would also be relatively low.