V.F. Cerveny F Tuba
This F tuba was built by the Czechoslovakian company Cerveny in Koniggratz, at the time called part of Bohemia. This reference to Bohemia narrows its date of manufacture to either before 1918 or the German occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War. The most interesting feature of this instrument are its so-called “Walzenventile”, or “roller valves”. This valve mechanism places the rotors at a 90° angle to their usual orientation, which was done to improve the valve action by increasing the mechanical advantage of the keys. Of course, this means that putting the valve tuning slides in the usual plane adds an extra 90° of tubing at each connection to the valve. The key mechanisms use the traditional sort of clockwork spring, which are adjustable by screws instead of the usual roller-like mechanism. This valve system implies that this is a pre-1918 instrument, as the examples I have seen are dated to roughly 1910. While this wrap of instrument appears small, it actually stands an impressive 41" tall, and likely has a bore of .710" through the first two valves and .748" through the third and fourth, based on another F tuba by Cerveny. This particular instrument appears to be in relatively good shape, with the only significant damage being to the bottom bow area and bell. As usual, the defining factor here would be valve compression, which of course isn’t described by the seller.