Bach Valve Oil
Vincent Bach offered valve oil in his instrument catalogs in the late 1920s. Interestingly, Bach valve oil was not included in his first Bach instrument catalog in 1925, but many other brass accessories, such as mouthpiece cases, valve covers, mutes, etc., were included.
This valve oil example matches the style & fonts in a 1935 Vincent Bach instrument catalog. This bottle did not include a dropper and was sold as a bottle. Trumpet & trombone players described applying a rag to a valve or trombone slide.
During the later New York and Mt. Vernon era, Bach valve & slide oil came with a glass dropper preinstalled. This allowed each application to be applied to trumpet valves or trombone slides.
In the few years after purchasing Vincent Bach Corporation, Selmer Cmapyn quickly used Vincent’s name on many brass accessories, including valve and slide oil. This new ‘branding’ of Bach with a line above & below, was used in 1965 and continued through the early 1970s.
Bach Valve Oil
source: Down Beat, Sept. 1965, p6
“Two additives make Bach valve Oil more effective and long-lasting than its highly refined oil base alone could be. Silicone is more water-resistant than other lubricants – keeps valves working freely even after heavy use. Hexachlorophene, the popular germ-destroying chemical, keeps them laboratory clean. 1.6 ozs.
1833 – valve Oil
Each $.50
In the late 1970s, Selmer switched to a valve oil bottle shaped like their new plastic straight mutes and then to more traditional bottle shapes from the 1990s to the present. Interestingly, the black valve oil bottle was shaped like a plastic Bach mute and even had the indentations of the mute corks into the plastic valve oil bottle.
source: from the BachLoyalist collection
source: BACH Lubricants; H. & A. Selmer, Inc.; publication 5063
source: from the collection of Nando van Westrienen [3]
