His Replicas Make Him a Man of Note

The demand for E-flat-keyed bugles or over-the-shoulder sax horns being what it is (not very big), building replicas of Civil War-era brass musical instruments is not the major part of Robb Stewart’s business.

Mostly, the 28-year-old Monrovia man, who calls himself the “Brassman,” repairs and rebuilds somewhat more familiar-looking brass instruments in his North Hollywood shop.

He has long been interested in antique horns, however, and several years ago he was told that there was a market for replicas. He constructed an over-the-shoulder cornet and sold it. Since then, he estimates, he has made to order 30 or 40 reproductions of such 19th-Century brass instruments.

Collectors and history-buff aggregations such as the Regiment Band of the 11th North Carolina Troops pay as much as $1,600 each for them.

“Right now,” Stewart says, “I’m making an alto ophicleide that will go for $3,000.” (An ophicleide, for those who may not know, is an early brass instrument that resembles a keyed bugle, but has a bigger bell.)

Franz X. Steitwieser, whose Trumpet Museum in rural Chester County, Pa., may be the only one in the world, believes that Stewart is doing civilization a service. Without the replicas, he points out, rare instruments would be hauled off to one historical ceremony and battle re-enactment after another in all sorts of weather.

“I love him,” Steitwieser says of Stewart. “I think he’s doing a wonderful thing. I want to see the original instruments preserved for eternity.”