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Cornet, B-flat, A

Maker C. G. Conn

Date1911 ca.

Place MadeElkhart, Indiana, United States, North America

ModelNew Invention Circus Bore

Serial No.118896

SignedEngraved on bell in floral design: MADE BY / C. G. Conn / ELKHART / IND.
MarkingsStamped on valve casings, respectively: 1 2 3
Stampd on second valve casing: S / 118896 / [eagle] / TRADE MARK / PAT. APRIL / 2.1907
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.” This particular cornet is, in principle, a Perfected Wonder model but with reversed tuning slide positions (quick-change to A at first bow and main tuning slide at second bow). Seems to be a transitional model between Perfected Wonder and New Invention Circus Bore.

Brass, gold-brass lacquer; mother-of-pearl touchpiece inlay.
Fixed s-shaped leadpipe; double slide quick-change to A at first bow with pushrod and wing-screw; main tuning slide at second bow.
Single-water keys at quick-change slide and third valve slide.
French rim with iron wire insert
Lyre holder at third-valve slide
Three tower-sprung Périnet valves with three unequal brass pronges; pistons of steel-plated brass.

In principle, a Perfected Wonder model but with reversed tuning slide positions (quick-change to A at first bow and main tuning slide at second bow). Seems to be a transitional model between Perfected Wonder and New Invention Circus Bore.
DimensionsHeight (without mouthpiece): 370 mm
Bell diameter: 122 mm
Bore (second valve slide): 10.65 mm
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.
Published ReferencesMarshall L. Scott, The American Piston Valved Cornets and Trumpets of The Shrine to Music Museum, D.M.A. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1988, p. 128.

Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979

Object number01726

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