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Pocket cornet, B-flat
Pocket cornet, B-flat
Pocket cornet, B-flat

Pocket cornet, B-flat

Date1905 ca.
Place DistributedBirmingham, England, Europe
ModelConhill Model, Class B
Serial No.11073
SignedStamped on bell: HR (monogram) / HENRY RILEY / & SONS LTD. / CONSTITUTION HILL / BIRMINGHAM / CONHILL MODEL / Class / B
MarkingsStamped on left side of second valve casing: 11073
Stamped on receiver ferrule: C
Stamped on valve casings, respectively: 52, 53, 54
DescriptionNickel silver, brass, triple loop, main tuning slide at second bow, removable leadpipe (B-flat shank), three Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½), bottom-sprung, alignment by one key on nickel-plated brass pistons, single water key at first bow, windway 3-2-1.

Brass with nickel silver B-flat tuning shank

Initially specializing in pianos, the dealer Joseph Riley (1830–1891) also offered brass instruments in the late 1880s and 1890s. Since 1889, Riley occupied 25 Constitution Hill, a magnificent four-story corner building between Constitution Hill and Henrietta Street in Birmingham. His son, Henry Riley (1853–1927), eventually continued the longstanding family business under his own name. The CONHILL Model is likely a play of the address Constitution Hill.

DimensionsHeight: 216 mm
Tube length: 1192 mm, 1271 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slide, valve slides): 11.8 mm, 9.6 mm, 11.5 mm, 11.5 mm
Bore diameter (shank, initial, minimum): 9.5 mm, 8.3 mm
Bell diameter: 69 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Tony Bingham, London, England, 1996.
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. 181-83, 290.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07144
On View
Not on view
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