POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

J. E. Becker must have been a saxophone maker. The object file says that the saxophone was "made by J. E. Becker for C.G.Conn Ltd, Elkhart, Indiana, USA. The file also states "From the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Conn. American firm of instrument manufacturers and distributors, primarily of band instruments". The company bears the name of Charles Gerard Conn, developer of a special type of mouthpiece for brass instruments (patented in 1875). In 1875 he joined with Eugene Dupont, a skilled horn maker to establish the Conn-Dupont Co in Elkhart, Indiana producing first cornets, then other brass instruments. In 1887 as C G Conn Co the company opened subsidiary plant in Worcester Massachusetts. A year later it produced the first saxophone built in the USA. By the 1890s the company offered an extensive range of brass instruments. Despite increasingly successful sales the company suffered from financial difficulties and in 1915 Conn sold it to Carl D Greenleaf, who changed the firms name to C G Conn Ltd. By the 1920s the company's primary market was school bands and orchestras. In 1927 it purchased a drums and percussion instruments factory. In the 1960s it purchased or affiliated with instrument makers in various parts of the USA. Today the company makes organs near Chicago, offers violins and other string instruments imported from Germany and assembled in Cleveland and a range of guitars manufactured in Japan: the Slingerland and Deagan manufatruers of percussion instruments are a subsidiary.