The internet has opened up public auctions to a worldwide audience.

Some sellers are ignorant, others intend to deceive which means that care must be exercised when buying antique ear trumpets.

This page is for collectors, to get one to use, read Buy One

In addition there are a large number of items that were sold in Victorian times which did not work, this trade has never really died out.

When I see an item up for auction which is improperly described (see fakes), I respectfully suggest to the seller that they might want to correct their listing. Responses vary between 'thank you very much, I will update the listing' and 'mind your own business' !

If you put the small end of a 6inch diameter funnel in your ear and test it for an increase in noise level, you will certainly find that it works rather well - but we all know it was never intended to be an ear trumpet and is probably newer than claimed.

If you want to buy a antique ear trumpet, the following should be considered:

The item earpiece is an important consideration - if it isn't clearly designed to fit in the ear - it is probably wrong.

These generic shapes should be treated with suspicion: view more shapes

Be very wary of trumpets which appear over cleaned. Items which have been re-soldered are sometimes over polished to mask the restoration. Rare trumpets can be excused reasonable signs of age. I buy unusual items as long as the condition permits one to know what it looked like originally - hence some quite damaged conversation tubes.

People combine all sorts of funnel shaped objects with some kind of earpiece.

Sometimes there is a sellers intent to deceive, others it is just plain ignorance.
Rarely does one see genuine provenance. I have one horn that had an owners note inside.
Assertions that an item was 'grandpa's ear trumpet' means nothing. The fact that it appears to work is irrelevant.
It seems experience and looking through old catalogues are the best source of an object's validity.
One should avoid terms like 'attic find', 'collectors item', really 'artistic' piece etc.etc.

Marks can be misleading.
The banjo on the left is labelled OL331. The auctioneer cited OL351 (a London dome).
On the right the telescopic 2pc is marked OL360, the auctioneer reported OL380 (a con tube).

Dating can be really difficult. Even with lots of good information many items are difficult to date reliably. These examples show what happens when you do not even have 'good information'.

As soon as the bulk manufacture of ear trumpets started around 1850, fraudulent devices started to appear. The Victorians were susceptible to quack devices. Quack items are still being offered on EBay today.

Prices offered on auction sites like EBay are prone to ridiculous inflation. If an ear trumpet is listed as an auction item typically starting at 99p then it will almost always sell at a market price.

Sadly sellers who are ignorant about real market values are offering trumpets at very high prices on a buy-it-now basis.

Some of the items listed on EBay have been there literally for years because they are over priced. In some cases I have tried to buy an item by offering a sensible figure only to get a rude refusal or sometimes not even a reply.

The situation in 2018-19 is especially bad because one dealer bought a small collection for too much money and is trying to sell at a profit. Others view the offers and assume that they reflect market values.

A recent example was a pair of 1950's NHS auricles priced at £180. They are really only worth half that. I was turned down at £100.

Almost always when an item is sensibly priced but an offer will be considered, I have managed to secure the object at a fair price.

If I am offered a trumpet in a private sale, I always try to be generous and bid a few pounds above what I believe to the market price.

Recently I have seen a lot of reproductions, mostly made in China? Pakistan?, sold in Europe through two German companies. To be fair when listing these, they describe the items as 'vintage style' or 'antique style'. View more shapes

For a long while I have wondered where all these horns with vibrating reeds in the mouthpiece would have been used.