This catalog was listed for sale as a 1954 catalog and several reference points align with that date:
- The back cover includes the Superior Avenue address where the Scherl & Roth business office was located. As best I've been able to determine, they moved into that office in 1953. Scherl & Roth operated out of the Prospect Avenue factory before then.
- There were a number of instruments introduced c.1955-56 that do not appear in these pages, e.g. the Hi-Fi cornet, Leonard Smith models of the Contempora cornet and trumpet, the Contempora "Philharmonic" bass trombone, etc.
- The description of the Contempora bass trombone includes mention of its Bronz-o-lyte bell, which only first appears on actual instrument photos with serial numbers closer to c.1954.
- The Professional model instruments reference "over two decades" of playing, which could be literally interpreted to be 20 years (1936-1956), but more likely just means from the 1930s to the 1950s.
While the back cover clearly states "Roth-Reynolds", the positioning of the separate "Roth Band Instruments" and "Reynolds" logos, as well as the separate page for Roth instruments (like earlier catalogs), suggests that the merging of Roth and Reynolds brand lines wasn't quite finalized in the first half of the 1950s.
Note: Catalog provided courtesy of ElShaddai Edwards. Do not copy, reproduce or distribute without written permission.
