Beautiful! What would you value the drum, today, Mike?

Hi,Happy Holidays from the San Francisco Bay Area.This drum was one of my first big purchases back in the mid-1990s. I purchased this drum from a collector on the east coast who at the time had 7 or 8 Billy Gladstone snare drums. This drum is on pages 6-7 in my book: VINTAGE SNARE DRUMS THE CUROTTO COLLECTION. I never did an article on the drum so here goes.1951 BILLY GLADSTONE 6 x 14 8 LUG GOLD LACQUER/GOLD PLATED “CHARLES CORDES” SNARE DRUM From my book: “This drum is known as the Charles Cordes Gladstone. Mr. Cordes machined all the Gladstone hardware and assembled most of the Billy Gladstone snare drums. There were approximately 50 Gladstone drums made of which fewer than 30 are accounted for as of this printing. Of these 50 snare drums the Charles Cordes drum is the only 6 x 14 gold lacquer/gold plated drum known. The only other drum similar was Billy’s *personal drum which was a 7 x 14 gold lacquer/gold plated model. Noted Gladstone authority Chet Falzerano has stated that the nameplate on this drum has the most inscription of any Gladstone.”*A good friend and fellow collector now owns this drum.Enjoy!Mike Curotto

Mike, I played in the United States Military Academy Band at West Point back in the early 90's. We had two Gladstone drums, both covered in White Marine Pearl. The nameplates were inscribed with the band's name as the owner. I assume they are still there. One of them sounded pretty good, but we never could get the other one to sound decent at all.