Checking out a 1906 Higham helicon

I spent the afternoon today at the Ringgold Band room in Reading, PA, at the gracious invitation of their assistant historian, Wendy Schmehl. My reason for the visit was to see if there was any evidence that the band, at one time, featured a J. W. Pepper helicon (yes, they had one years ago - but that's for another post), as well as the original Sousaphone, also built by Pepper (yes, they featured it in a special concert in 2007). I also wanted to see their wonderful photo of Sousa's Band at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (more on that later!).

The biggest surprise was what Wendy had waiting for me when I arrived: a dusty and tarnished old helicon tuba built by Joseph Higham Ltd. of Manchester, England! I even tried playing it, and while the rotary valves were quite sticky, and the horn felt rather stuffy, I was able to get a passable sound out of this old monster (seen above)!

And it was clearly an "old monster" - but how old? We both wondered.

The bell had the serial number on it, 56347, as well as the maker (Higham) and importer (Fillmore Brothers of Cincinnati), and within minutes of researching Higham instruments on the internet when I got home, I found an article by musicologist Arnold Myers titled, "Made in Manchester: Instruments of the Higham Firm," published in 2018 by The Galpin Society Journal. At the end of the article, there is a serial number listing which places the year of this horn at 1906.

So, my goodness -117 years old! Here are some photos, so that you can get a closer look:

[Concerning the photo above, note the high pitch tuning slide that is tied to the tubing to the left of the valves - presumably to keep it from getting lost.]

Finally, here is what it has on the bell (the diameter of which is unknown at present, as I did not have any way to measure it on this visit):

Just to be clear, it says:

PATENT

CLEAR BORE

CLASS

A

EXHIBITION

PRIZE MEDALS

AWARDED

TO
J. HIGHAM LTD.
MAKERS

127 STRANGEWAYS

MANCHESTER

ENGLAND

56347

FILLMORE BROTHERS

COMPANY
CINCINNATI

SOLE AGENTS
UNITED STATES

As we looked at all of the historic photos around the band room (and there are many - the band was established in 1852!), we found four that showed this horn with the band in past years (when the silver plating was shiny and bright!). First, from 1910:

Then, from the 1920s (but clearly the same player):

And then, on the march in 1923:

Finally, there was this photo from 1983, when a few of the band's relics were pulled out for show:

I'm hoping to locate a Joseph Higham instrument catalog from around 1906 to learn more about the horn, and this pursuit already looks promising: I stumbled upon this image, from some sort of Higham publication (and posted at the Joseph Higham, Ltd. Facebook page), that reveals the nickname, "Dreadnought," which is apparently a kind of battleship!

I also poked around the tuba chat rooms online, and discovered that John Bailey, who plays (or played?) tuba in the Ringgold Band, apparently considered buying this very helicon back in 2010. I interviewed John in 2015, when I was researching the original Sousaphone (as he owned it from 1973-1991), so I hope to get ahold of him again to see what he can tell me about this treasure of the Ringgold Band.

Stay tuned for more!