My father bought this horn for me new in 1964,I played it as you can see in the American Legion Hollywood band,that picture was taken in about 1967 so I'm 15 in it.I played it through high school and into college.I stopped playing it in the mid 70's and have had it carefully stored in my closet ever since.This horn is really like new,I was sooo careful with it and have coveted it for 50 years.Its time for someone who really appreciates a fine horn to grab this one.By the way,I played in many orchestras and bands with this horn,UCLA with Mehli Meta Zubins father and the American youth symphony also in Hollywood.The horn has the beautiful mechanical thumb valve and the lyre holder that I believe only came on early horns.My teacher was Art Franz who actually played on the sound track of Gone With The Wind among many others.the horn is truly a time capsule and sounds incredible,Art picked it out for me and said it was one of the "best" ones he played.The finish is all original and is dent free there are some surface scratches if you look closely.As you can see the hand hold appears to have little to no wear....Check my feedback and bid with Confidence!!!!Even the case is nice,yes it's the original one and the original handle is like new I really took care of this!!!!