Hawkes & Co. was founded in 1858 by William Henry Hawkes, who was “For many years Solo Cornet Player in the band of H.M. Scots Guards, State Trumpeter, and late Principal Trumpet in the Private Orchestra of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria.” [7] Howell and Myers write the following regarding the musical production scene in London at the time:

“Hawkes was a relative late-comer to the Victorian brass and woodwind manufacturing scene. British firms had been stimulated by competition from abroad and the presence of foreign companies in London prior to, and at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. Companies rapidly expanded, with music publishers and instrument dealers starting to make brass and woodwind instruments to obtain lucrative contracts and satisfy the great demand for instruments from the military and brass band markets.”

The slide trumpet itself dates back to the Renaissance and is a precursor to the modern trumpet. It grew out of the war trumpet (Lituus) as used and developed in Western and Central Europe. Don Smithers argues that the slide grew out of the detachable leadpipe, and separated the use of the trumpet as a dance instrument from the trumpet as a signaling device in war. The slide trumpet allowed musicians to extend tubing and thus expand the range of pitches they were able to play. It also led to the development of the modern trombone.