Courtois Koenig's Model Cornets, 1851 to 1870

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

Antoine Courtois had the advantage of being born into a brass instrument making family and he went on to become the most successful and innovative member.  In 1844 he took over the shop that had been run by his uncle and father and soon became a specialist in cornets à pistons that were popular with soloists including Koenig, Arban, Levy, Reynolds and Arbuckle among many others.  Shortly after winning a medal at London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851, Courtois started engraving and later stamping “Approved by Herr Koenig” on the cornets sold through Jullien & Co. in London. This included models with Stölzel valves (usually called "cornopean" in English) as well as with with Périnet valves.  The photos below show one of the earliest known examples with Stölzel valves and the “New Model” with Périnet valves. The latter included a new valve port design, a variation of the original Périnet and the bell on the left side of the valves that continued in production until well after 1900 and was copied by most other makers to more or less of a degree.

Courtois seems to have discontinued making Stölzel valve cornets in the late 1850s and offered those with Perinet valves with double waterkey or a less expensive version with a different “wrap” of the mouthpipe allowing for a water slide that can be quickly emptied. Some time after Hermann Koenig’s death in December of 1857, all of these made for export were stamped “Koenig’s Model” as in the photo at the top of this page. This model was discontinued in about 1870, but reappeared on at least one cornet made in the 1880s. Some time before 1870, Courtois introduced a smaller bore version of the cornet with double waterkey as “Levy’s Model”. In about 1877 the “Arbuckle’Model” was introduced that appears to be the same as the Koenig’s Model with double waterkey as pictured below.