Over-the-shoulder cornet, E-flat
Date1864-1871 ca.
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
Serial No.none
SignedEngraved on bell: Made by / E. G. WRIGHT & Co,, / Boston.MarkingsnoneDescriptionGerman silver, one bow, telescopic tuning slide with gear adjustment at leadpipe, three string-operated rotary valves (1, ½, 1½), double cork, spiral-spring return.Altered from an over-the-shoulder cornet to a single coiled bell-front cornet, then rebuilt into its present state.
In the 1860s, E. G. Wright & Co. turned to making more standardized over-the-shoulder cornets with a narrower bore diameter at midlength, moving away from the earlier bugle-oriented model represented by NMM 7334. This cornet was made between 1864 and 1871, during which period the firm appears as E. G. Wright & Co. in the Boston city directories.
DimensionsHeight: 620 mm
Tube length: 938 mm, 947 mm
Bore diameter receiver: 10.8–10.6 mm
Bore diameter valve slides: 10.7 mm
Bell diameter: 119 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1987 from Robert M. Hazen, Bethesda, Maryland. Previously owned by Mark Elrod, Germantown, Maryland.
Published ReferencesRobert E. Eliason: “D. C. Hall and the Quinby Brothers, Boston Music Industry Leaders: Makers of Brass Instruments with Flat, Round, Square and Piston Valves,” in: Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 33 (2007), p. 93.
Sabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 3: Valves Evolve (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2017), pp. 208, 212, 223, 250-251, 288, 310.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number06887
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