Are any of them old dark marching sticks? If so I'd be interested in buying some from you. I have no idea of value though.

When I was a kid, there was a stick brand I liked a lot "Bunken" I think it was, brown nylon tips that screwed off if you tried hard enough, but I liked them.

Haven't seen them in decades...

Any brand names on the sticks you have?

So, I dug them out and I forgot how cool they are. There are 9 pairs and then 17 sticks of various sizes - 3 or so have light play wear on them - the rest are clean. My stepfather's family were the Mueller half of Penzel/Mueller - they made clarinets - Woody Herman played them - a bunch of people did. They also dealt with various other musical instruments and for a while they sold drum sticks. This lot is what is left over from that. I guess it was a sampling from various stick makers in the late twenties. Some of the names are "Bruno" "Ludwig and Ludwig" "Pop Seymour". A few of them have paper labels that say 1929 on them. A few pairs have ivory tips and bottoms. The thing that is so fascinating to me about them is that some of them seem so delicate - especially at the tips. And a few have little grooves below the tips. It's really cool to see the assortment of styles at the time. Check out the pics - I think it's pretty fascinating.

Below is a link to a couple more high res photos:

http://greatcityprod.gosimian.com/v2/sp/a/r5AVvuwdBAtGdhFZAuQMag/preview

-Ian

beautiful! i collect vintage sticks. i do not have any of that quality however. those are like a work of art. thanks for sharing...

mike

What a fine collection, I have a few pairs but those are special, treasure them they are very cool

NICE!

Are the black ones particularly heavy? Since they came from a clarinet factory, they could very well be ebony or African black wood, both are quite heavy (and black) but it could be a stain too I suppose...

I really like the ivory tipped models. The picture does not show the grain well but it looks to be grainy ivory. very special sticks there!

Thanks guys!

The sticks were only distributed by the clarinet people - not made there. So they are from all sorts of sources - a sampling of different stick makers of 1929. Some are heavy and some are surprisingly light. I think they are different woods. The finish is very interesting on some them - like something you would see on a piece of furniture.

-Ian

Wow!! This is fascinating indeed!

I'm suprised about how much effort was put into these sticks in a time when drums were still very unfinished and crude instrument with lots of technical progress in front of them.

As I said, fascinating!

I think this might be a good place to post this one drumstick my parents found in the attic of our cottage. It's a few centuries old house, used to belong to a German family, it was a farm and there's lot of pretty old stuff.

This drumstick is about 12.5" long, so I'm guessing it belonged to some kinda kids' snaredrum. Weird thing is the tip. It's been cut in half roughly, obviously aftermarket. Why would anyone do that? To attach someting to the end? What? Brushes?

[IMG]http://img7.rajce.idnes.cz/d0703/5/5750/5750548_54408f8f0a477b2238a61bf4750db2c1/images/p5.jpg?ver=2[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img7.rajce.idnes.cz/d0703/5/5750/5750548_54408f8f0a477b2238a61bf4750db2c1/images/p6.jpg?ver=2[/IMG]

Fascinating Ian. Thanks for sharing those photos.