Solid Silver Eb Pocket Cornet

This little Eb cornet belongs to Dan Rossi, project manager in the automotive industry and serious brass enthusiast has a knack for finding very rare and interesting brass instruments made in the US. By the time that he told me about this instrument, he had done a lot of research on the Internet. He sent me photos and asked if I could answer some of the questions that it raised. Unfortunately, I couldn’t and had more questions. We only have speculations and guesses as to when, where and by whom this instrument was made.

Dan thought that it might be solid Sterling silver or similar alloy of silver. I could only confirm this with 100% confidence once I disassembled it for restoration. He had found that E.G. Wright, of Boston, had patented a process for gold plating an engraved surface. This involved coating the entire object in a sort of varnish and engraving through it, exposing the base metal. It was then electroplated and the varnish removed. I agreed that this engraving appears to have been gold plated using that process, rather than the alternative in which the instrument is engraved first and then the portion of the instrument not to be plated it carefully masked of with varnish or lacquer. In this case additional engraving was added after the removal of the masking varnish.

Very little of the instrument appears to have been made by Wright or the two shops where he worked later in life: Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory or Hall & Quinby. The only details that appear very similar to those of Boston or Hall & Quinby are the scroll shape braces and slide pull knobs.

In spite of these facts, the monogram that is engraved on the bell appears to contain the letters “HQW”, possibly for Hall, Quinby and Wright”.

Cornet collector, Pascal Durieux, contacted me after reading this and suggested that we’re reading the monogram upside down. When I had looked at it the other way, I thought that it couldn’t be right because of the “tail” of the “Q” would be sticking out of the upper left of what otherwise would be an “O”. Pascal pointed out that there are two “tails” on that side and when viewed in the orientation that the player would see, the “Q” becomes a “D” and the “W” an “A”, making the monogram “HDA” or some other combination. Sometimes, we see what we want to see!

Some of the details of the “Allen” rotary valves are very close to those made by Henry and Carl Lehnert, first in Boston and later in Philadelphia. Carl Lehnert was still in Boston at the time that this cornet was likely made, in partnership with B.F. Richardson. They are so close, that I am convinced that the valves were made by the same valve maker as those on the second cornet in the photos below. This includes not only the visual similarities, but the actual measurements of the oval valve casing ports are the same in each: .7” by .335”. The valve cap rings are interchangeable and other parts very close. The valve levers also appear to be identical. While the bells appear very similar dimensions, measurements prove that they are not made on the same mandrel.

Some of the speculative stories that I’ve thought of include that Wright had the parts for this cornet made (or, indeed, the entire instrument) by Lehnert or another maker at a time after he had quit Boston but before going to work with the Quinbys. The date of the patent, March 8, 1870 was right about at this time of transition.

Another thought is that he may have already been working in the Quinby shop, but wanted this project to be separate from that collaboration. It is even possible that the valves were made by the Quinby brothers for Lehnert’s production and this cornet. This seems the least likely, since Hall & Quinby’s Allen valves are distinct when compared to Lehnert’s. Of course, it’s also possible that it was made somewhere other than Boston and with no relation to Wright, Hall and Quinby.

Unfortunately, we may never know the facts behind this beautiful little cornet, but it is an important historical piece of the brass instrument industry of the mid-19th century. After restoration it has proven to be an excellent playing cornet, with excellent intonation and response. In spite of the damage that it had suffered, it doesn’t seem to have been played enough to have resulted in much wear to the valves or the gold plated surfaces.

Regarding brass instruments with valves made of solid silver, it is rarely seen, but offered by a number of makers, including Besson and Distin in London as well as the Boston makers. Presentation keyed bugles of solid silver are well known to enthusiasts of US brass industry, with thirteen known that were made by E.G. Wright (another of solid gold!), one by Graves & Company, Boston and historic reports of a few others. Besides the cornet featured here, there are four other US made cornets of solid silver, all Eb sopranos: two by E.G. Wright, Boston in 1857 and 1861, one by Graves & Co, Boston in 1857 and one by J. Lathrop Allen, New York about 1865. They continued to be offered in the catalogs of Hall & Quinby and the Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory until the mid-1870s priced at twice that of the silver plated equivalent.