Howard Reynolds' Schuster Cornet
This cornet would not warrant much attention aside from the player's name engraved below the maker's marks. In fact this instrument had spent several decades serving as a decorative base for an electric lamp. The lamp owner decided to Google the name "Howard Reynolds" and discovered that there was a well known cornetist with that name. In fact, Reynolds was London's leading cornet soloist from the time that Jules Levy left in 1875. His professional career started in the mid-1860s at the age of 16 and continued until his death in 1898 and was most closely associated with the Covent Gardens Promenade Concerts. His career was busy and wide ranging, including a season in the US in 1880.
The name doesn't prove ownership, but there is a small amount of evidence pointing in that direction. As always, I invite any additional facts regarding Mr. Reynolds and this cornet.
Aside from the name, the time and place are the only supporting evidence. This cornet was made by Schuster & Sohne or Schuster & Co (the name of the company after 1881) some time after the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 and was likely made before Reynolds' death in 1898. It could have been made after that date, although this style of cornet was soon out of fashion. Another detail that is a clue to an earlier date is the bell rim diameter, which is over 5", not seen in the popular cornets, including Courtois and Besson, from after the 1870s.
Schuster, located in Markneukirchen, Saxony, did a thriving export business to the US as well as Britain. They produced a wide range of models, copying what was popular regionally. Visually, this is somewhat of a copy of a Courtois Levy or Arbuckle model and with a bore of .460", it is more like the Arbuckle Courtois.
The last image is a photograph of Howard Reynolds that appeared with an article in The Strand Musical Magazine in 1897 holding a very similar cornet that also appears with his obituary in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. Like most top soloists of his generation, he was known to play a Courtois cornet and it appears to be the Arban model (sometimes called Reynolds Model) that he was given in 1875. It has decorative engraving including lettering, a Sterling shield with presentation, fancy embossed ferrules and brace flanges and gold plated trim. In this article, he was asked what sort of cornet he played and he replied that it was an ordinary instrument other than being of large bore. He also states that he normally plays in "French pitch" and indicates that this is lower than the more common pitch level. In the photo, he is using the A shank with a high pitched tuning slide, which seems to be a common practice for the soloists that played in low pitch Bb. I discuss this further on my page featuring Mathew Arbuckle's cornet.
While this Schuster cornet may have belonged to a different Howard Reynolds, it is likely that he was courted for his endorsement by the makers or sellers. Dirk Arzin, owner of the excellent “Brass Tacks” website, informed me that Schuster Brothers (Gebruder Schuster) had branch in London and the advertisement below, published in 1872, also indicates this. It would make sense that Schuster would have wanted the public endorsement of the top local cornetists. The prominence of “LONDON” stamped on the bell lends evidence that this cornet was marketed there. Schuster Brothers was a separate business, started by the founder of Schuster & Co, Wilhelm Ludwig Schuster and his brother, Heinrich Woldemar Schuster, for the purpose of exporting instruments made by Schuster & Co. Schuster Brothers had entered string and woodwind instruments in the International Exhibition of 1862 in London and notice the third line of text stamped on the bell: “PRICE MEDALS”. This is nonsensical in English, but in German the word “preis” is translated in English as both “prize” and “price”.
