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Cornet, B-flat, A, low pitch

Maker C. G. Conn

Date1913 ca.

Place MadeElkhart, Indiana, United States, North America

ModelNew Invention Circus Bore

Serial No.129266

SignedEngraved on bell: MADE BY / C. G. Conn / ELKHART, / IND.
MarkingsStamped on left side of second valve casing: L / 129266 / UNION (above shield) / MPBP / B & SW (within shield) / LABEL / PAT. APRIL / 2.1907
Stamped on valve stems: 129266
Stamped on water key of main tuning slide: 9266
Stamped on valve cases, stems and guide lug, respectively: 1, 2, 3
DescriptionThis model was first referred to in company literature early in 1911 as the New Invention cornet. However, by October of that year it was advertised as the New Invention Circus Bore model, and, from 1914 through its final catalog appearance in 1920, was simply called the Circus Bore model. After hearing this model demonstrated at the Elkhart factory in 1911, the French manufacturer Amédée Couesnon is said to have “clapped his hands over his ears” and remarked, “We could not sell such a cornet in France--it is too loud, too loud” (C. G. Conn's Musical Truth, Vol. 9, No. 10, October 1911, pp. 2-3). Conn's subsequent advertising offered a $1,000 reward for “any person producing as good a cornet in every particular.”

Silver-plated brass, partially gilded, mother-of-pearl finger buttons, double loop in S-shaped formation, main tuning slide at first bow, quick-change to A (push-rod partially lost) at second bow, fixed leadpipe, three Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½), top-sprung, spring inside hollow stem, alignment by T-shaped lug on spring anchor plate, flat lug on opposite side, wide spring-barrel opening, pistons nickel-plated brass, single water keys (main tuning slide and third-valve slide), windway 3-2-1.

The patent referred to in the stamp on the second valve is US patent 848,726 from August 2, 1907, for an improved, smooth windway, in particular through the third valve. Compared with NMM 7313, the present cornet has a longer bell.
DimensionsHeight: 403 mm
Tube length: 1341 mm, 1421 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slides, valve slides): 9.6 mm, 8.5 mm, 10.6–12.3 mm (first slide), 12.3 mm (second slide), 12.2–12.3 mm (first valve), 12.2–12.3 mm (second valve), 12.3 mm (third valve)
Bell diameter: 119 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Rich Ita, Atlanta, Georgia, 1997.
Published ReferencesSabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: The Heydey of the Cornet (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2022), pp. 100-2, 278.

Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999

Object number07228

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