Feb 21, 2019 - Sale 2499

Sale 2499 - Lot 271

Price Realized: $ 1,560
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(C.G. CONN INSTRUMENTS--ELKHART, INDIANA)
A complete set of 44 real photo postcards detailing the intricate and laborious production line at the New Wonder factory, "where the best [musical] instruments in the world are manufactured."
Including innumerable departments for every step of the process, such as a tool department, bell and branch department, wood bending department, brass foundry, crook making department, dictation room, operating room, packing and receiving, and of course, a photo dept. and printing room, likely where this set was made. Each image features many of the 303 hard-working employees at the factory, of whom 250 are men and 53 women. Silver prints on carte-postale paper, the images measuring 3 3/8x5 3/8 inches (8.6x13.7 cm.), each with a number and caption in the negative, and the first with a printed introduction to the company, on recto; with the original printed cardboard sleeve. 1911

Additional Details



The popularly accepted version of the company's founding is that it originated from a single punch: Charles Gerard Conn was reportedly slugged in the lip after a night of drinking. This left Conn with a deeply split lip, and he feared he would never play his cornet again. He fastidiously fashioned a rubber rimmed mouthpiece that snuggly fit his lip, and soon discovered the market for this universally adaptable piece.