Boosey & Co brasswind serial numbers Boosey & Co and Boosey & Hawkes brasswind serial numbers This list is based on a study of the surviving workshop archives of Boosey & Co and Boosey & Hawkes, now in the care of the Horniman Museum, London These tables give the earliest serial numbers recorded for each period.
Thanks stuart for this thread, but this just adds to the confusion. I had seen this document before and wondered how it could be right.
I have a cornet with a long bell with the serial number 18153. So, according to the serial number listing it dates to 1873 - 1874 and has clearly written on it Boosey & Hawkes. Now if they did not get together until 1930, how does this make sense? I am really confused. The other Boosey & Hawkes trumpets and cornets I have date to 1947, 1952, 1967, 1969 and 1970. I have considered both of these options and have shown the instrument to colleagues who cannot see any evidence of a missing digit and the exterior & interior look and facets of the instrument point to it being a old instrument and solidly made, so it is a bit of a mystery to all of us, and we can't work it out. If this is a copy, it is a pretty good one, but the valve action dates it as not modern at all.
Boosey And Hawkes Clarinet Serial Numbers
Do you have any more suggestions, because I have five other boosey and hawkes trumpets or cornets and this instrument appears to pre date them all, and one is from the 1950's. The serial number is on the bell near the valves ( where most boosey and hawkes serial numbers are) and I thought that if the numbers were anywhere else it could be a thow together job or a mis interpretation of valve set number vs serial number, but this has no other numbers on it except a 1 on the first valve. There is no way this should exist.
Plus it says boosey and hawkes ltd in very old engraved writing, and there are no scratches near the numbers to indicate a number replacement or forgery. I am at a loss.