Under the Ohio Band label, Reynolds introduced a two-piece brass and nickel-silver bell in the late 1940s on deluxe “Tone Tempered” models of the Roth trumpet, cornet and trombone.
It’s not known if Reynolds founder Foster A. Reynolds was involved in the design of the new bell style, though it hardly seems coincidental that F.E. Olds introduced the Olds Studio model line with their own “Brilliant Bell” nickel silver flares immediately after Foster Reynolds sold his company to Roth and joined Olds in California (~1947).
The Reynolds Emperor trumpet, cornet and trombone were introduced c.1950 and adopted the deluxe bell flare, which then remained a design element into the early 1970s. The name “Silver Flare” appears in an early-1950s Roth-Reynolds catalog; later catalogs simply refer to a “Nickel Silver bell” option. It’s possible that Reynolds had to change its nomenclature due to trademark conflicts with a competitor, or perhaps just moved away from the feature name.
H.N. White/King marketed a unrelated “Silver Flair” model in the mid-1960s.
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