Early Olds Cornet

This is the earliest cornet listed on The Olds Register and presumably the first cornet design that Olds had introduced.  Olds trumpets were much more popular at this time and they were obviously marketing them to musicians that were playing music for dancing, shows and jazz clubs and not military or school bands.  

According to factory records as I understand them at this time, this cornet was built in about 1933, having serial number 746.  As rough a life as this cornet has obviously led, it retains all its original parts aside from case and mouthpiece.  A beautifully preserved example built shortly after this one and with the optional hammered bell, is pictured at VintageCornets.com.  

Notice that the adjustable ring tuning third slide had become available by that time.  Within a year or two a new model cornet was introduced and named the Standard Cornet in later catalogs.  It seems likely that this model was dropped at that time.  It is also unusual among the earliest Olds cornets and trumpet in being a large bore, marked "L" and measuring .468".  The vast majority of these are "M" (.453") or "LM" (.453" with larger bell or .460").  Overall length of this cornet with mouthpiece removed is 15 7/8" and the bell rim
diameter is 4 9/16".