Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice U.S. WWI Military Bugle, complete with a yellow cavalry tassel, most likely added later. It does have a mouthpiece, but it looks to actually be an early trombone mouthpiece by the famous H.N. White company, which would go on to become King Musical Instruments, still in existence today.

The bugle is made completely of brass, except for the "German Silver" bell garland, or "krantz", which is not typically seen on instruments made in the United States. These are much more common on European instruments, particularly those made in German and Czech areas, so we believe this may be an imported instrument. It also may have been made by a European immigrant trained in brass instrument construction.

The bugle is most likely in Eb, the usual key that bugles of the time were pitched in. The bell shows a brazing seam on the left hand side, which is much easier to see on the inside of the bell. It has two hanger rings on the right side, which have larger rings attached to them as well, which were used to suspend the bugle under the arm.

The bugle definitely does have a fair amount of dents and bending, as expected from one that saw long service. The bell is somewhat squashed from the sides, and there are a lot of dents on the rear. We do not however see any major splits or similar damage, so we don't see why with a little TLC and the proper mouthpiece that it wouldn't be able to be used.

A great piece of WWI militaria, ready to display!

The word bugle in the United States is often used as a generic term for many types of horns including the instruments used by the armed services, drum and bugle corps and by various other organizations such as the Boy Scouts. Nevertheless, bugles have always been specified correctly by the armed services and the suppliers and manufacturers of these instruments as either bugles (a conical bore natural horn) or as a field trumpet (a cylindrical bore natural horn over 2/3rds of its length).