15. How many Benges were made in Chicago, Burbank and Los Angeles?
My best guess is that there were about 2130 Benges made in Chicago. When I started my research
in December 2005, my original guess was that there were @2520 Chicago Benges made, plus or
minus 40 or so; but now that over 500 Chicagos have turned up, I'm pretty convinced that the true
number is @2130, which means that almost twenty-five percent of all the Chicago Benges made
are now listed in the spreadsheet.
My Revised Calculations
# 500 to #1080 = 580 instruments
#1500 to #1700 = 200 instruments
#2000 to #3350 = 1350 instruments
Total revised estimate? 2130 Chicago Benges
My Original Calculations (in December 2005)
#
500 to #1499 = 980 instruments
#1500 to #1700 = 200 instruments
#2000 to #3338 = 1340 instruments
Total original estimate? 2520 Chicago Benges
I firmly believe that this original estimate was on the high side, as I still haven't seen any instruments
numbered between #1075 and #1501*.
This holds not only for my personal research, but for anyone
else's collation of information. All it will take is the surfacing of more than one instrument
numbered
11xx, 12xx, 13xx or 14xx
to shoot down
this theory, but it's been over fourteen years...
* #1208 has turned up, but that was a special horn for a student who was also working
for Benge (Frank Lisanti); I don't see this trumpet as part of a trend.
Burbank: Based on a start number of #3352 and a final of #8396, and #1705 to #1860 for the
large bores, I'd estimate that approximately 5200 instruments were manufactured with Burbank on the bell.
Los Angeles: Based on a start number of #8384 and a finish of #43366, I'd estimate that
approximately 35,000 instruments were manufactured with Los Angeles stamped on the bell.
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