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Harry James Horn Sold at Auction



 
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Bob Sweet
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:13 pm    Post subject: Harry James Horn Sold at Auction Reply with quote

I just ran into something interesting here on the web. Just for kicks I googled the following: Harry James Parduba mouthpiece. This brought on fairly large list of sites, and the one to click on is "Harry James Personally Owned and Stage -Played Trumpet". The custom made King was double gold plated complete with gold plated Parduba 5 star and sold for (I hope you are sitting down) $28,680.00. Lots of nice pictures and interesting text for us H.J. fans. Bob
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hansonsf
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote



Would you believe this old HJ model 5 mp which came with a vintage horn I bought sold for $120 ?!!!!!
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rooster7
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've often wondered what happens to the "equipment" of famous trumpet players. Thankyou for the posting!
Mark
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toughcritic
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 8:46 am    Post subject: Re: Harry James Horn Sold at Auction Reply with quote

Bob Sweet wrote:
I just ran into something interesting here on the web. Just for kicks I googled the following: Harry James Parduba mouthpiece. This brought on fairly large list of sites, and the one to click on is "Harry James Personally Owned and Stage -Played Trumpet". The custom made King was double gold plated complete with gold plated Parduba 5 star and sold for (I hope you are sitting down) $28,680.00. Lots of nice pictures and interesting text for us H.J. fans. Bob


Was there any indication as to who the purchaser was, musician, collector? I know the premier James authority, Tony Scodwell, is manufacturing a beautiful replica balanced style Bb trumpet as a tribute to "The Man".
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Bob Sweet
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Location: Sun Lakes, AZ

PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No information was given about the purchaser, just the auction house, history and pictures of the horn. It was auctioned by Heritage Auction Galleries (HA.com). If you want to inquire about it, it was in Lot: 22307
Auction: 648.

The horn (King ser. number 472894) was given to Joe Cabot by Harry, and was a dual bore balanced model similar to the horns from Tony Scodwell. The details of the gift are talked about on page 272 of Peter Levinson's fine biography "Trumpet Blues". I wish Tony could comment
on this. He is a walking encyclopedia on Harry James.
Bob
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michael manthey
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 12:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I wish Tony could comment on this. He is a walking encyclopedia on Harry James.


I'm sure he will when he reads the thread.
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Michael Manthey
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michael manthey
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rooster7 wrote:
I've often wondered what happens to the "equipment" of famous trumpet players. Thankyou for the posting!
Mark


Good question. I know that over the years Maynard gave a lot of stuff to guys in the band, horns, mouthpieces etc. ... After his passing a lot of his 'stuff' was purchased by someone, and is the good hands of Steve Weist at UNT.
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Michael Manthey
Scodwell USA Trumpets
Stomvi USA FLEX Mpc
Bob Reeves Mpc's
Kanstul Mpc's
'The Brass Spa' Practice Mute
www.ultrapureoils.com
Maynard Ferguson BBN Band
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Tony Scodwell
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:43 am    Post subject: Harry James King trumpets Reply with quote

How can I resist? While not the expert on these things that my buddy Dave Belknap is, I do want to chime in.
The King that got so much bread in auction was not quite "mint" to my eyes, but mint obviously is in the eyes of the bidder. From the photos that I've looked at, this horn was built around 1970. Saying only "King" on the bell tells me that it might not have the sterling silver bell that Harry was fond of when I was with the band from 1964 to 1968. Those horns all said SilverSonic Super 20 by H.N. White and had sterling bells and leadpipes with gold trim on the valves and m/p receivers. Mine is truly mint from 1968 in an original King single case [not the "famous" H.J. case] and blows really well. Dual bore like all at that time made for Harry in a balanced configuration. I'm really glad that a benchmark has been set for these horns as there are so few left in private hands. King never made these models for production and I would be guessing at the total number made over the years that were sent to Harry. When I was with him he would get six or so at a time, a couple times a year. So let's see...
Harry started with King in the early fifties and played them until his death. By my [very rough] calculations that would add up to at least a couple of hundred horns out there, but in all my travels and dealings with Harry James' fans through the years, that seems like WAY too many. I do know that many went back to the King factory in Cleveland after Harry played on them [one was promised to me after the guy from King said he would take it back to the factory and clean it up before coming to Chicago in a few days to bring it back to me. I never saw it again...] One other tid-bit of info to pass on. Pee Wee Monte, Harry's manager of many years asked to have a dozen Harry James models built AFTER his death. Oh, the stories about Pee Wee we could all tell.
Tony Scodwell
Scodwell USA Trumpets and Flugelhorns
"Live In The Studio" by the Tony Scodwell Big Band now at CD Baby
Coming from Hal Leonard, "Big Band Classics featuring Tony Scodwell"
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Bob Sweet
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the comments Tony. I'm sure you could get a nice price for your '68 horn with the King case. Do you play it or just keep it locked in
a vault?

The H. N. White family decendants have a web site where they sell some of the old King horns that have been restored. I think they had a couple of Super 20s there.
Bob
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Crazmo
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thought you might get a kick out of these photos:

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Dad bought it in 1962 from the H.N. White Company in Cleveland for $275. He went there to buy a cornet, I think. He had been playing on a King Liberty trumpet he got from his parents in 1936. Not sure why he wanted the cornet.

Anyway, the man at the counter said, "I've got a horn you would be interested in." Dad looked at it and said, "I'll never be able to afford that." The man replied, "You might be surprised." Somehow, Dad came up with the money.

It came with the case you see in photos. It also had a King S1 mouthpiece. There was a tag in the case that said something like, "Return to Frank Monte c/o The Harry James Orchestra." I’ve got that tag around here somewhere.

Dad gave it to my brother who was a sophomore in high school. Bill gave up the trumpet soon after. Dad played it only occasionally.

I took up the trumpet in about 1965 and Dad let me start taking “The Harry James” to school starting in 9th grade. I treated it with great reverence and played it regularly until 1995, when I retired it and started playing a Schilke. I still play it once in a while. It really is a nice playing horn.

Chris
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MikeyMike
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WOW!!!

Thanks for posting the pics and the story.
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Bob Sweet
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing.
Bob
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toughcritic
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 7:58 pm    Post subject: Re: Harry James King trumpets Reply with quote

[ Harry started with King in the early fifties and played them until his death. By my [very rough] calculations that would add up to at least a couple of hundred horns out there, but in all my travels and dealings with Harry James' fans through the years, that seems like WAY too many.

Tony Scodwell
Scodwell USA Trumpets and Flugelhorns
"Live In The Studio" by the Tony Scodwell Big Band now at CD Baby
Coming from Hal Leonard, "Big Band Classics featuring Tony Scodwell"[/quote]

Tony, how many actual Harry James owned-played Selmers or Kings are out there and how would one attempt to find a bonafied H.J. trumpet to acquire, and, how accurate would you rate most of the "authentication"?

Dick Bobnick
Dick Bobnick Illustration & Portraiture
www.dickbobnick.com
Burnsville, Minnesota 55337
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Tony Scodwell
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Joined: 17 Oct 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 8:53 pm    Post subject: Harry's horns Reply with quote

I'd bet there isn't much documentation with Harry's signature on it to authenticate any of his horns. He just gave them away to guys like me and moved on. If $28K plus was generated by the horn being talked about here, I'd say a good one like mine should bring more. You have a Selmer don't you? Wanna trade?
Tony Scodwell
Scodwell USA Trumpets and Flugelhorns
"Live In The Studio" by the Tony Scodwell Big Band now at CD Baby
Coming from Hal Leonard, "Big Band Classics featuring Tony Scodwell"
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A.N.A.Mendez
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Crazmo wrote:
Thought you might get a kick out of these photos:

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Dad bought it in 1962 from the H.N. White Company in Cleveland for $275. He went there to buy a cornet, I think. He had been playing on a King Liberty trumpet he got from his parents in 1936. Not sure why he wanted the cornet.

Anyway, the man at the counter said, "I've got a horn you would be interested in." Dad looked at it and said, "I'll never be able to afford that." The man replied, "You might be surprised." Somehow, Dad came up with the money.

It came with the case you see in photos. It also had a King S1 mouthpiece. There was a tag in the case that said something like, "Return to Frank Monte c/o The Harry James Orchestra." I’ve got that tag around here somewhere.

Dad gave it to my brother who was a sophomore in high school. Bill gave up the trumpet soon after. Dad played it only occasionally.

I took up the trumpet in about 1965 and Dad let me start taking “The Harry James” to school starting in 9th grade. I treated it with great reverence and played it regularly until 1995, when I retired it and started playing a Schilke. I still play it once in a while. It really is a nice playing horn.

Chris



I assume that has been restored? Who did the work?
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Crazmo
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found the tag that came with the horn. I had the date wrong. Based on the tag's date, I'd have to say Dad bought it in 1963. It must have been early in 1963 because we moved that summer. I remember when Dad brought it home. We were still living in the old house.

Chris

[img] [/img]
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