The bell of this cornet has been replaced, so the identity of its maker is unknown. Its attribution to Isaac Fiske is based on comparison with an almost identical instrument in the Jon Hall Collection. That cornet shares with the present one not only the overall design, featuring four American, string-rotary-action valves, but also their particular arrangement and details, such as the shape of the touch pieces, the ferrules, the braces, and the finger hook. The fourth valve on this instrument is used to switch the pitch from B-flat to A.
Body: German-silver body with brass bell (replacement). Double-looped, parallel tubing: leadpipe (shank or crook required); conical first bow; main tuning slide; cylindrical third bow; valve segment, conical bell bow and bellpipe in one integral part to the right of the leadpipe; variant of a French rim (bent inwards instead of outwards).
Valves: Four side-action, string-operated rotary valves. Flat-spring return mechanism mounted underneath touch pieces; reciprocal driver pivot stopped by V-shaped cork buffers. Internal slide tubing. Windway: third, second, first valve, pitch-changing valve.
Accessories: German-silver, B-flat tuning shank. Square wooden case painted black with brass fittings and red velvet interior. German-silver lyre.
Sounding length: 1287 mm (B-flat); internal diameter, leadpipe: 11.2 mm; bore diameter (inner valve slides) 11.6 mm; bell diameter: 123 mm.
Go to Links to Four of the NMM's Eight Brass Instruments by Isaac Fiske
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