Graves & Co. Bb Cornet
This is the only Graves Bb cornet with the bell over the
shoulder known (please let me know if you know of another)
and that's just part of the story. The photo below of the
tarnished bell is as I purchased it and is the only part of the
cornet that is original. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to own
even a portion of a Graves instrument. Once I had it, I let Mark
Elrod, Bob Eliason and other experts in the field know and I
asked them if they had heard of another. They hadn't and that
made it more fun to own such a rarity. The next thought is to
reproduce all the missing parts. I had already been thinking of
making a circular cornet for myself that was more accurate than
those that I make to order for customers. I knew that it would
be an extremely time consuming project and I describe it more
thoroughly here. I decided that while I was making the valve
assemblies for that project, I may as well make an extra set that
I could use to complete this cornet in the future. Once I had the
valves made, I decided that this cornet would be more important
to finish first. Since there was no complete cornet like this in
any known collections, it is surprising that we know of at least
three original photographs from the 1850s of musicians holding
this exact model. The copy of an original photo shown here
was provided by Tom Meacham. These photographs are clear
enough for me to get the proportions and details very accurate.
I also had information from five or six original Graves cornets
that I had worked on in the past.
When the Eb cornet pictured below, from the collection of Nick
DeCarlis, came in for some minor repairs, that gave me the
opportunity to make even more precise and detailed
measurements and drawings than I had in the past. A very
similar Eb cornet is part of a set made for the Samuel Colt's
Armory Band in 1855. The Bb cornets from that set aren't
know to exist today, but there is an original photograph of one
of Colt's musicians holding one reproduced in Garofalo and
Elrod's book on Civil War era instruments and bands. The last
photo below is an ambrotype taken in the 1850s of a musician
holding a Fiske circular Bb cornet and a Graves 4 valve Bb bass
that would have been very much like those made for the Colt
Armory Band. Notice that the form is with the bell over the
shoulder, but the "L" shaped mouthpipe in place is for playing
the instrument with the bell upright. My cornet was made for
the Lawrence Brass Band. Lawrence, Massachusetts was a 9
year old mill town 25 miles north of Boston, when the band was
formed in 1849.
All of these Graves cornets mentioned so far have detachable
bell sections and originally had two alternate bells as pictured
with the Eb instrument below. The altos, tenors and basses had
circular (pigtail) crooks for playing over the shoulder and "L"
shaped mouthpipes that allowed the bell to be upright, as was
typical in most larger brass instruments. A band fully equipped
with these could participate in military tactics or parade during
the day and with a quick switch of the bells or mouthpipes, they
could perform for a formal dance the same evening. The very
narrow shape of the bell flare on this cornet is unique among
American Bb cornets that I know of from the 1850s. More
typical would be a Saxhorn style bell as seen in my New Orleans
instrument, a large cornet bell descended from early English
cornopeans as seen in my Fiske circular cornet or a Courtois
cornet style bell as seen on my D.C. Hall and Boston cornets.
This cornet is 24 1/4" long, the bell rim diameter is 4 15/16" and
the bore measures .438". The bore of the original valve section
would likely have been somewhere between .425" and .435".
The mouthpiece is from the period by Allen & Co. in Boston.
Click on images for larger views.
shoulder known (please let me know if you know of another)
and that's just part of the story. The photo below of the
tarnished bell is as I purchased it and is the only part of the
cornet that is original. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to own
even a portion of a Graves instrument. Once I had it, I let Mark
Elrod, Bob Eliason and other experts in the field know and I
asked them if they had heard of another. They hadn't and that
made it more fun to own such a rarity. The next thought is to
reproduce all the missing parts. I had already been thinking of
making a circular cornet for myself that was more accurate than
those that I make to order for customers. I knew that it would
be an extremely time consuming project and I describe it more
thoroughly here. I decided that while I was making the valve
assemblies for that project, I may as well make an extra set that
I could use to complete this cornet in the future. Once I had the
valves made, I decided that this cornet would be more important
to finish first. Since there was no complete cornet like this in
any known collections, it is surprising that we know of at least
three original photographs from the 1850s of musicians holding
this exact model. The copy of an original photo shown here
was provided by Tom Meacham. These photographs are clear
enough for me to get the proportions and details very accurate.
I also had information from five or six original Graves cornets
that I had worked on in the past.
When the Eb cornet pictured below, from the collection of Nick
DeCarlis, came in for some minor repairs, that gave me the
opportunity to make even more precise and detailed
measurements and drawings than I had in the past. A very
similar Eb cornet is part of a set made for the Samuel Colt's
Armory Band in 1855. The Bb cornets from that set aren't
know to exist today, but there is an original photograph of one
of Colt's musicians holding one reproduced in Garofalo and
Elrod's book on Civil War era instruments and bands. The last
photo below is an ambrotype taken in the 1850s of a musician
holding a Fiske circular Bb cornet and a Graves 4 valve Bb bass
that would have been very much like those made for the Colt
Armory Band. Notice that the form is with the bell over the
shoulder, but the "L" shaped mouthpipe in place is for playing
the instrument with the bell upright. My cornet was made for
the Lawrence Brass Band. Lawrence, Massachusetts was a 9
year old mill town 25 miles north of Boston, when the band was
formed in 1849.
All of these Graves cornets mentioned so far have detachable
bell sections and originally had two alternate bells as pictured
with the Eb instrument below. The altos, tenors and basses had
circular (pigtail) crooks for playing over the shoulder and "L"
shaped mouthpipes that allowed the bell to be upright, as was
typical in most larger brass instruments. A band fully equipped
with these could participate in military tactics or parade during
the day and with a quick switch of the bells or mouthpipes, they
could perform for a formal dance the same evening. The very
narrow shape of the bell flare on this cornet is unique among
American Bb cornets that I know of from the 1850s. More
typical would be a Saxhorn style bell as seen in my New Orleans
instrument, a large cornet bell descended from early English
cornopeans as seen in my Fiske circular cornet or a Courtois
cornet style bell as seen on my D.C. Hall and Boston cornets.
This cornet is 24 1/4" long, the bell rim diameter is 4 15/16" and
the bore measures .438". The bore of the original valve section
would likely have been somewhere between .425" and .435".
The mouthpiece is from the period by Allen & Co. in Boston.
Click on images for larger views.
