Early English Cornets, called Cornopeans

Charles and Frederick Pace

Most of the information below comes from “The New Langwill Index”, William Waterhouse, 1993 and “The Pace Family of Musical Instrument Makers, 1788-1901”, by Louse Bacon, published in The Galpin Society Journal, 2004.

The largest number of the earliest English cornets seem to have been made by the Pace family and the earliest of those by the brothers Charles and Frederick. Their father, Matthew Pace had started making brass instruments in Dublin by 1798 and likely worked for another maker there before establishing his own business. Only two instruments are known to exist today from the Dublin shop, an infantry bugle and a six keyed bugle made about 1815 and signed “Made by Matt’w Pace & Sons”. They moved to London in about 1816 and continued business under that name, but no instruments are known from London. In about 1819, the brothers succeeded their father and one six keyed bugle is known signed “C & F Pace”. In 1827, Frederick moved to Bristol (no known instruments) and back to London in 1831, where he again shared an address with Charles (2 Lower Crown St). In 1834, the brothers both moved to shops on King St., Westminster, Charles at 49 and Frederick at 15, the other end of this short street. It was in these two shops that the Pace brothers started making cornopeans as pictured below.

While these two instruments are very similar in design, they differ enough to know that they were produced in separate shops. Further study and measurements may indicate that certain components, such as valve assemblies or bells were made by the same tooling, but initial impressions show numerous differences. The clapper key was patented by George MacFarlane in 1845, presumably not appearing much earlier, and the Pace brothers both moved again in 1849, narrowing down the time period when these two cornopeans were made.

The Stölzel valves seen in these early cornets were invented by Heinrich Stölzel in Prussia for use in horns and trumpets in about 1815 and patented in 1818, although utilized in largest numbers by French makers. The design was patented in France by Jacques Michel Labbaye in 1827 and first used there in trumpets. Soon after came the development of cornets à pistons, a small horn that was similar to trumpets, but easier to play in the mezzo-soprano range. These were called “cornopeans” in England and, surprisingly, strong evidence indicates that they were introduced there via Russia rather than France. The details of this history are best reported by Sabine Klaus in her “Trumpets and other High Brass”, Volume 3, National Music Museum.

The early English cornets had wide bells and often, a “clapper” key for easier trills, presumably to retain a similar sound and utility of the keyed bugle. Another difference, compared to later cornets are the cylindrical mouthpipes, which make these more trumpet-like, when applying the cylindrical/conical delineation. Tapered mouthpipes, already universal in French horns, seem to first appear in French cornets in the mid-1840s and later became the norm in England as well.

Wood & Ivy Cornopean

Mostly known for supplying woodwind instruments, Wood & Ivy were only in business between 1837 and 1847.  Located in London, they probably sold mostly imported merchandise.  The engraving on the bell indicates that this cornet was sold through another dealer, Townsend in Manchester.  

This early English style cornet or cornopean was probably made in Germany.  It is well known that numerous shops in Markneukirchen were supplying keyed bugles and valve brass instruments to the English market and the decorative engraving on the bell garland of this cornet is very much in the German style.  It is a very good copy of the models that were popular in England at that time with three Stölzel piston valves and "clapper key" which was used for trills.  It plays in Bb with the mouthpiece inserted directly into the mouthpipe and has crooks for Ab, G, F, E and Eb.  This is another typically German practice, compared with the French and English custom in which there would be a short shank for the nominal pitch, Bb in this case.  It is missing the original A shank, which would have been about 3" long.  It is well preserved with original case, dust caps which cover the finger buttons and mouthpiece with Sterling silver overlay.  When found, the case contained a second Sterling overlay mouthpeice that appears to be for a keyed bugle.

It is made of brass with German silver trim.  It is 10 1/8" long with mouthpiece removed, the bell diameter is 4 7/8" and the bore measures .450".  History of Wood and Ivy and Townsend from William Waterhouse, "The New Langwill Index", Tony Bingham, 1993.  If you are interested in learning more about early soprano valve brass instruments, the absolute best source of the latest knowledge is to be found in "Trumpets and Other High Brass" Volume 3 by Sabine Klaus.