Courtois Cornet Serial Numbers, 1853 to 1901

I’m compiling a database of all known Courtois cornets made before World war one, with serial numbers, medal dates and other data. Please email me with data from your Courtois cornets. robb@robbstewart.com

The following is a list of Courtois cornet serial numbers with associated years.  These numbers were stamped on the underside of the third valve caps as seen in the photo above.  The number indicated in the list is a cornet made at about the beginning of that year.  Between 1860 and 1880, the London dealer, S. Arthur Chappell engraved a second number near the bell rim of roughly half of the instruments that he sold. The significance is not known, but these numbers are within the range between 1000 and 6000. After about 1901, Courtois started a new series of numbers, initially stamped inside the third cap, but started stamping it on the second valve casing by the 300s in around 1905. Courtois used separate series of numbers for trombones, trumpets and other instruments.  This list is probably accurate within a year but possibly more at certain points.  The calculations use a database of over 200 cornet serial numbers and the exhibition dates stamped on them as well as a few with presentation dates.  Exhibitions ended in October or November of the year, so it is assumed that most of the cornets with associated dates were made in the following years.  There are some overlapping of number/dates indicating that some instruments were completed out of sequence, which unfortunately, reduces the accuracy, but likely within a year.  The approximate rate of production was calculated using the numbers in between the dates.  This cannot be precisely accurate without knowing what numbers might not have been used.  The largest gap in the database is between 988 and 2022 indicating that a block of about 1000 numbers was not used.  There are many gaps of between100 and 300 numbers and three over 400, but don’t show any obvious patterns.  Obviously, these may get filled in with future entries. There are 19 cornets in the database that predate the 1855 stamp and three or four of those don’t have serial numbers. Those without serial numbers likely pre-date 1853.  The highest number is 20194 and a new series started in about 1901, the lowest number in that series being 18.  This portion of the database involves only 18 cornets without a logical pattern of numbers and medal dates, so they will not be included until more data surfaces.