Trumpet in Bb by Frederich van Cauwelaert

This trumpet may seem unusual and exotic to most trumpet players today, but this was the standard form for trumpets in Belgium until the middle of the 20th century.  The great trumpet teacher and composer Theo Charlier, played a trumpet very similar to this and, indeed, the better known Belgian maker, Mahillon, made a "Charlier Model" trumpet for many years.  French makers such as Besson and Courtois made similar trumpets in the last half of the 19th century but moved on to more cornet-like trumpets with longer tapered mouthpipes and larger bore through the valves that were much the same as our modern piston valve trumpets (Besson in the 1880s and Courtois after 1900).  

The genesis of this style trumpets appears to be in the reduction in size of the earlier style piston valve trumpets in G or F such as the Courtois and Brown & Sons F trumpet featured on this site.  The size of the bore is somewhat smaller as is the flare of the bell, resulting in a very bright timbre, more what we expect in high Eb and other smaller trumpets today.  This is a very responsive and easy to play trumpet with good intonation and I would find it very satisfactory in a small ensemble.  

The bore measures .416" and the bell rim diameter is 4 9/16".  The length with mouthpipe shank removed is 18 1/8".  The shank is a reproduction and the mouthpiece is from a 19th century French Besson trumpet.  

"The New Langwill Index"  reports that Ferdinand van Cauwelaert opened his brass instrument making shop in Brussels in 1846.   Always a fairly small shop, it specialized in Belgian style valve trombones, French horns and trumpets.  It continued in business until after WWII.  I don't have any way of knowing the date of manufacture of this trumpet, but I believe that it is no later than the 1920s and could be before 1900.