Weird hybrid cornet/FH mouthpiece

[Christian K. Peters]

Hello all,
Anybody heard of a cornet shanked french horn cup mouthpiece??? Only marking is Frank Holton Elkhorn Wis. I thought it might be a alto/tenor horn piece, but again the shank is definitely cornet. Flat rim and the cup is wide. Almost 3/4 inch inner diameter and deep like a horn mouthpiece. The only thing I can think of, is it was custom made for a french horn player messing around with cornets.
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Christian K. Peters
Schilke Loyalist since 1976

[Rwwilson]

What you have is likely a Holton cornet mouthpiece from the early 1900's. At that time cornet mouthpieces were much deeper and had V shaped cups, much like modern french horn mouthpieces. They also had very flat rims that are sometimes referred to as cookie cutter rims.

[Christian K. Peters]

Hello,
I thought of that, except the mouthpiece looks new and is in gold plate. Nothing on it looks old. And, I have never seen an old Cookie cutter rim mp that is this deep and wide. It makes a cornet sound fluffy and very ultra flugelish. Really, unplayable, sound wise, in any cornet setting. Compared to any FH piece I have ever seen, this thing is huge.
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Christian K. Peters
Schilke Loyalist since 1976

[nieuwguyski]

The "Frank Holton" stamping strongly suggests that it's not a new mouthpiece, rather a vintage mellophone mouthpiece.

As in a mellophone that looks like the first instrument shown here:

https://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/mellophones.html

As the article states: "It is built to use a mouthpiece sized between that of a trumpet and trombone with a cornet shank."
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J. Notso Nieuwguyski

[Christian K. Peters]

Hello J.
I knew I could find an answer here. J is right. I have an old mellophone sitting in front of myhearth, and it has a cornet receiver. So it looks though as I have a nice gold plated mellophone mouthpiece. Thank you all.
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Christian K. Peters
Schilke Loyalist since 1976