It's a bear!

c.1935 Self-Balancing with two-tone bell
Bore: .485"-.500" (12.3 mm-12.7 mm)
Bell: 8" (203.2 mm)

This horn has a couple of interesting features. First off, the bell flare is a different material (red brass) than the the tail (yellow brass). Olds later used this sort of "two-tone" arrangement on their Studio and Special models. Then there's the tuning slide - the straight legs of the crook are very long, likely an indication that this horn was originally intended to be a high pitch/low pitch instrument. If that was the case, the high pitch slide is long gone.

The bell does not have a serial number - it's only marked "8 LM".As for the slide markings, the bore designation (M) is clear, but the first two (of four) digits of the serial number aren't really readable - I think it's an 8 and a 5, but I'm far from certain. An 85xx serial number would place the horn sometime around 1935.

If you look carefully, you'll notice that there are areas at both ends of each outer slide tube that have been spot laquered. When I got this horn, the crook ends of both tubes had significant red rot - I actually put my thumbnail through the tube wall just trying to scrape off some crusty stuff stuck to the slide. Rather than try to find a set of replacement tubes, I took a cue from tuning-in-slide horns and had Bruce Belo cut the corroded ends off and then compensate for the lost length by adjusting the oversleeves on the other ends of the tubes.. It actually turned out pretty well, though the slide does tend to bind a bit out in 7th position.

Overall View	Bell Engraving	End Crook	Tuning Slide
	Bell Seam	Braces