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Echo cornet, B-flat, high pitch [low pitch]

Echo cornet, B-flat, high pitch [low pitch]

Date: 1913 ca.
Place Made:London, England, Europe
Model: Concertiste
Serial No: 96544
SignedStamped on bell: CLASS / A / 50 MEDALS OF HONOUR / FB (monogram) / BESSON & CO / “Prototype” / 198 EUSTON ROAD / LONDON / ENGLAND / [five-point-star]
MarkingsStamped on second valve casing: BESSON & CO / [five-pointed star] / BREVETE / 96544
Stamped on echo-bell and normal bell: C.G.
Stamped on valve casings, caps and spring stems, respectively: 1, 2, 3, 4
DescriptionSilver-plated brass, double loop with additional loop for echo bell, main tuning slide at second bow, second tuning slide at third bow, third tuning slide connecting instrument with echo bell, removable leadpipe (B-flat shank), four Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½, switch to echo bell), valves one to three top-sprung, spring outside stem, alignment by one key on brass pistons, fourth valve bottom sprung (attached to instrument), single water key at first bow, windway 3-2-1-4.

Silver-plated brass tuning shank for B-flat (presumably original).

“Concertiste” model with additional echo-bell, operated by a fourth valve. A Besson catalog from about 1913 states that the B-flat echo cornet was only supplied in Class A with a guarantee of 10 years, and that “a solo introducing the echo effect invariably secures an encore."

Various stamps and markings "CG" on both bells and the case indicate that this cornet belonged to the Coldstream Guards.
DimensionsHeight: 327 mm
Tube length (normal bell): 1220 mm, 1292 mm
Tubel length echo bell: 122 mm longer than normal bell
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slides, valve slides): 12.1 mm, 10.1 mm, 11.4 mm, 11.5 mm, 11.7 mm, 11.7 mm
Bore diameter (shank, initial, minimum): 9.2 mm, 8.6 mm
Bell diameter: 118 mm (normal), 10 mm (echo bell)
ProvenancePurchased from Steve Dillon, Woodbridge, New Jersey, 1988.
Credit Line: Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Not on view
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. 194-95, 291.
Object number: 06906