4 - Conn's “Wonder” Years: Artist Endorsement Posters, 1885–1899

Summary

Between 1885 and 1899, the C. G. Conn musical instrument manufacturing company of Elkhart, Indiana, aggressively advertised its world-renowned “Wonder” line of products, along with the artist musicians who played them, in several different types of print media. These included the company's early house organ, Trumpet Notes, its successor, C. G. Conn's Truth, Conn's occasional publication, C. G. Conn's Pictorial Truth, and their product catalogs, testimonial compilations, flyers, trade cards, and business cards. Perhaps the most extravagant marketing items published during this period were the several series of lithograph posters featuring prominent musical artists who proselytized Conn's products using both their images and handwritten testimonials.

These artist endorsements were more often than not encouraged by presentations of opulent, custom-made, gold-and-silver-plated, sometimes even diamond-studded, brass wind instruments from the Conn factory, prepared for the musicians’ testing and often for their own personal use. Alessandro Liberati was so enamored of Conn's products and reputation that he was among the very first to contact C. G. Conn following the devastating fire of January 29, 1883, that leveled the Elkhart facility. Liberati recalled, with relief, that he had safely received the diamond-studded, gold-plated Ultimatum model cornet custom-made for him just a few weeks before the fire. He was also among the first to arrive in Elkhart after Conn proudly opened the doors of his new factory, which had already been engaged in manufacturing musical products since mid-March—a mere six weeks after Conn chose to rebuild on the very spot where his previous factory burned to the ground on his thirty-ninth birthday. The local paper noted the likelihood that Liberati would be asked to play the “first cornet made by Conn since the fire” at a concert to benefit Conn's employees and to celebrate the factory's reopening.

Conn spared no expense rebuilding both the “horn factory” and his printing and publishing department, located in a secondary building annexed to the instrument plant. As he prepared to step up his advertising campaign following the fire, Conn contracted with several lithography and engraving firms. The exquisite, detailed engravings of the new factory and Conn's musical products in the originally biweekly Trumpet Notes were prepared by engraver Joe K. French, of French Bros. (Toledo, Ohio).