Bb Cornets by Adolphe Sax, 1860s

Although Adolphe Sax is mostly known for the invention of the saxophone and secondarily for the Saxhorn family, his factory built just about every sort of instrument that was made in his time.  If you have any doubts, the University of Edinburgh Musical Instrument Museums has maintained a list of known examples.  This Bb cornet was made in 1862 and looks somewhat ordinary for that time in France, presumably less expensive that those with Sax’s more flamboyant braces.  Sax built most cornets of the Modele Francais (bell and mouthpipe both to the right of the valves) as opposed to the Modele Anglais (bell on the left of valves) that was already much more popular in most of the world. You can read more about this in Niles Eldridge's article on the topic.

This cornet is remarkably well preserved and retains its original Bb and A mouthpipe shanks and mouthpiece.  The only work that was done to it is to remove a crease from the bell and install new corks.  It was found in a southern US state, although nothing is known about when it was brought here.  The return crook from upper tuning tube to third valve casing had been shortened to raise the pitch from the original French "diapson normal" (A=435) to play in a higher pitch.  They didn't get it quite short enough to play in the high pitch used in US bands (about A=452Hz) and it tunes to A=440Hz with the tuning slide pulled out about 5/8".  The overall length of this cornet with mouthpiece removed is 13 3/8", the bell rim diameter is 4 7/8" and the bore measures .460".

Below, is another Bb cornet made by Adolphe Sax, this one in 1865. It appears to be earlier, with two Stölzel valves and a standard Périnet in between. This model was made by almost all French makers in the 1850s and 1860s, and in our time, we have given them the name “hybrid”. There was still a demand for the taller bodied cornopean looking cornets and they were likely able to sell them at a lower price. The latter was true with Gautrot, as seen in their catalog of 1867. Their “hybrid” model cornet cost 10% less than the standard cornet with three Périnet valves, all of which were equipped with crooks to F. The Gautrot cornet with three Stölzel valves was even less expensive, costing about 47% less than the standard cornet with three Périnet valves.

The two cornets are actually very similar acoustically and were provided with shanks and crooks to play in multiple keys. The bore, while not identical is similar, at .462”. It is 11 5/16” long with bell rim diameter of 4 13/16. Careful measurements of the bells indicate that they were made on the same mandrel. And comparing to cornet bells by Courtois indicates that they were very close copies of those.