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Cornet, B-flat, A, low pitch

Maker C. G. Conn

Date1911 ca.

Place MadeElkhart, Indiana, United States, North America

ModelNew Invention Circus Bore [medium bore]

Serial No.120516

SignedEngraved on bell: MADE BY / C. G. CONN / ELKHART / IND.
Engraved alongside bell: Elza H Adamson / Dec. 1915.
MarkingsStamped on left side of second valve casing: UNION (above shield) / MPBP / B & SW (within shield) / LABEL / 120516 / TRADE [eagle] MARK / PATENTED
Stamped on valve stems: 120516
Stamped on water key of main tuning slide: 229
Stamped on valve casings, stems and largest 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, mother-of-pearl finger buttons, double loop in S-shaped formation, main tuning slide at first bow, quick-change to A (push rod removed) at second bow, fixed leadpipe, three Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½), top-sprung, spring inside hollow stem, alignment by three unequal lugs on spring anchor plate, pistons nickel-plated brass, single water keys (main tuning slide and third-valve slide), windway 3-2-1.

The New Invention Circus Bore model shares the S-shaped leadpipe with the Perfected Wonder. However, the two models differ in the construction of the quick-change slide and the more traditional stepped inter-valve porting of the New Invention Curcus Bore cornet.
DimensionsHeight: 365 mm
Tube length: 1342 mm, 1422 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slides, valve slides): 10 mm, 8.4 mm, 9.9–10.7 mm (first slide), 10.7–11.1 mm (second slide), 11.5–11.6 mm (first valve), 11.8–11.9 mm (second valve), 11.6–11.7 mm (third valve)
Bell diameter: 123 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1998 from Rich Ita, Atlanta, Georgia.
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. 100-1, 278.

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

Object number07313

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