Conn Artist engraved "portrait" instruments
The museum of musical instrument
engraving maintains both a virtual collection of images culled from
collections all over the world as well as a physical collection of more
than 100 different examples of the engravers art.
We have over 40
examples of the instruments known as Conn portrait engraved or Conn
artist engraved. We believe this to be the largest assembled collection
of these rare gold plated instruments in the world.
Most of the Conn artist engraved instruments were manufactured in the 1920's
The 1920's were the hay-day of the engraved musical instrument. Companies created these highly stylized instruments as show pieces of their instrument lines. Well to do customers purchased these instruments as show pieces. Many elaboratly engraved instruments were created for exhibitions and for members of traveling concert bands of the day and considered as trophies of their manufacturing ability.
The engraving on many of these instruments that were built by CG Conn during the period were attributed to the two brothers Charles "Doc" & Julius Stenberg. Charles Stenberg worked at Conn for a staggering 72 years his brother Julius for 64 years. Careful study of dozens of these Conn instruments leads me to believe that the Stenbergs were not the only engravers to produce these instruments. Variations in lettering, scroll and flower styles and the faces of the engraved subjects suggest tat there were several engravers capable of this level of artistry.
Conn new wonder saxophones came with the choice of several finishes ranging from raw polished brass , nickel pate, satin silver plae , gold plate and burnished (shiny) gold plate. Portrait engraving is seen rarely on silver plated instruments. Most Conn artist engraved instruments were sold in gold plated finish.
I have so far identified close to 50 different images. Ladies profiles were the most common.
New Wonder Artist's Special models
