About Us
My name Is Ray Noguera I am a designer, builder and restorer of Brass band musical instruments. For many years I have been fascinated by the engraved art that adorned so many of the vintage instruments That I sold or was asked to restore. Many years ago I met a New York based engraver Named Jerome Brownstein. Jerry was a general engraver meaning he worked on all range of items Jewelry trophies,watches and Jerry engraved the Words BD of Ed NYC in thousands of instruments for the New York City Board of Education. It was in that capacity that I met Jerry. I often watched as he engraved instrument after instrument with the NYC tag.
Many years later I began building custom trumpets. I wanted my instruments to stand out from the crowd of industrial instruments produced by the factories and other small makers. I reunited with a now retired Jerry Brownstein sat with him and developed a pattern for my bell. I sat and watched as Jerry engraved our design covering much of the bell. After several sessions I begged Jerry to teach me the art. I went on begging for 20 years before one day Jerry arrived at my shop with a sheet of copper and a hand-full of old tools and said " ok lets go". For next few weeks I spent hours filling the copper sheet with line after line of wriggle patterned straight lines. Straight line gave way not only to scrolls but to an obsession.
I have now spent many hundreds of hours learning the art and acquiring instruments to study and copy. As my collection grew I realized that, with some exceptions, the engravers art was minimized by the musical instrument community . I have ramped up my efforts to collect and disseminate information about Engraved Musical instruments and thus the Museum of Musical instrument engraving is born.
Please study and enjoy the images and the information I post . Share it with your friends and students and honor the great artists that created these instruments.
I welcome your comments and input If you have a instrument you think the world should see please feel free to contact me.
Ray Noguera
