Pocket cornet, B-flat, A, Old Philharmonic pitch or high pitch

Distributor Salvation Army

Maker Pélisson frères & Cie

Date1885-1890 ca.

Place MadeLyon, France, Europe

Place DistributedLondon, England, Europe

Serial No.none

SignedStamped on bell: [in sun with crown] S [cross and crossed swords] BLOOD AND [FIRE] / THE SALVATION ARMY
MarkingsStamped on valve casings, pistons and valve caps, respectively: 1, 2, 3
Stamped on first-valve top cap: 5
DescriptionBrass, triple loop, main tuning slide at second bow, removable leadpipe (B-flat and A shank), three Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½), bottom-sprung, alignment by one delicate key on nickel-plated brass pistons, single water key at first bow, windway 3-2-1.

Two slightly different tuning shanks for B-flat (original) and A (not original).
Unstamped silver-plated deep brass cornet mouthpiece with flat rim (not originally belonging to this instrument).
Brass lyre.

By 1878, Charles Fry from Salisbury introduced brass bands in the Salvation Army to support meetings and outreach activities. The Salvation Army started its own musical instrument manufacture in East London in 1889. By 1901, a suitable site was found in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, to expand production.

The triple folding of this cornet allows a smaller, more compact size while offering the standard cornet pitches of B-flat and A. The same model was produced by the large factory of Pélisson frères & Cie. in Lyon, France, and it is likely that this pocket cornet was not made in the Salvation Army's own factory but by Pélisson. The Salvation Army imported less usal instruments, such as pocket cornets, from France even after establishing their own brasswind factory.

DimensionsHeight: 207 mm
Tube length: 1217 mm, 1282 mm, 1379 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slide, valve slides): 13 mm, 9.9 mm, 11.7 mm, 11.7 mm
Bore diameter (shanks, range initial, minimum): 9.4–9.2 mm, 8.8–8.7 mm
Bell diameter: 98 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1997 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
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. 183-84, 289.

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

Object number07232

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