Toy Trumpet: Museum Object and Cultural History
Toy Trumpet: date made: late 19th century. maker: unknown. Object Name: trumpet, speaking.
The object in the museum catalogue
As more American volunteer fire fighting companies began to form during the late 18th century, a need emerged for better organized efforts in combating conflagrations. Engineers and officers would use “speaking trumpets” to amplify their voices over the noise and commotion of a fire scene to direct the company in effectively fighting the blaze. Two trumpet variants are reflected in the collection: plain and functional “working” trumpets that were actively used at fires, and highly decorated “presentation” trumpets. Presentation trumpets were awarded to firefighters in honor of their service, or between fire companies during visits, competitions, and musters.
This silver plated toy speaking trumpet was manufactured during the late 19th century. The trumpet has a braided beige cord that is tied to the trumpet next to the mouthpiece and the bell. The plain silver trumpet has a pseudo hallmark stamped into the shaft. British hallmarks served to denote the maker, date, purity of silver, and other information about a sterling silver piece. The mark on this trumpet does not correlate to any known maker, meaning they were likely done by an undocumented American maker to imitate the British marks.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: late 19th century
- maker: unknown
- Object Name: trumpet, speaking
- Physical Description: silver plated (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 10 3/4 in x 4 1/2 in; 27.305 cm x 11.43 cm
- place made: United States
- ID Number: 2005.0233.0873
- accession number: 2005.0233
- catalog number: 2005.0233.0873
- Credit Line: Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation.
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