E-flat soprano cornet

Soprano cornet with top action string rotary valves, pitched in E-flat (with appropriate crook). German silver. Water key details do not match the horn, so it might have been added. Everything else seems original, and in good shape.

No maker’s name on the cornet. In catalogues, I’ve seen visually similar horns by J. Lathrop Allen, circa 1870; Slater, circa 1874; Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory (various dates); D. C. Hall, circa 1879. So perhaps it was made in New York or Boston? I acquired it some 30 years ago from the “bottom of a box” of miscellaneous parts and instruments, from a retired band director, so I’ve no provenance to report.

Back in the day, e-flat soprano cornets seem to have often been the brass band’s primary solo instruments (at least in America); the b-flat cornets seem to have had more of a harmony part.  Over several decades, the e-flat migrated to more of a “filigree” part, with the b-flats moving to the solo position.  Eventually, the e-flat was supplanted by a clarinet or two.  More’s the pity….