"New" (to me) Boston 3-Star Cornet - info / help,

[Man Of Constant Sorrow]

I was just (Christmas '23) gifted a very nice Boston 3-Star Ne Plus Ultra cornet (s/n 77236), by a wonderful Jewish family from Boston I have known for many years.
(I am awaiting details regarding the history of the horn, which I shall provide when I receive same).

It is in very good condition, aside from a couple stuck slides, which I shall be addressing soon.

It plays well, and really sounds wonderful !
( I normally play an extraordinary pre-war F. Besson - Paris cornet, and a very fine York Airflow cornet ... so, I have good reference horns for comparison. I don't do DixieLand or Trad Jazz, so I shall hope to play the horn in other genres of music; mainly, original material and melodic scores ... possibly some Brass Band participation).

The "mouthpiece safari" begins; although I have learned my primary mouthpiece used on the above horns seems to work well ... also, a few vintage deep-V cup "cookie-cutters".

Anyone here have experience with this model horn ... or have historical context ? Would be most helpful and appreciated.
_________________
Sub-Optimal Hillbilly Jazz

[Halflip]

[OldSchoolEuph]

I suggest re-checking your serial number. The fonts used by Boston had very heavy flags on the “1”. Boston serial numbers never made it to 30,000. If the number is 11236, it would date from 1891, and say Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory on the bell. In the far less likely case of 22236, it would date from 1915, not be the classic Arbuckle-like 3-star design, and say Boston Musical Instrument Company on the bell.

Boston influence threads throughout the history of American brass-making, touching virtually every maker – it was a major influence on the entire construction of “A Timeline of Trumpets”. If you look to Appendix L on page 385 in the Second Edition, there is a graphical chart showing the interconnections of the makers and the key individuals across that history.

Boston’s heritage is that of the first commercial chromatic brass-making in the Western Hemisphere – specifically James Keat in 1836 making keyed bugles for sale by Graves. EG Wright later learned from Graves, also picked-up the concepts used by contract maker Henry Sibley for Ned Kendall (the probable innovator), and ultimately combined workshops with Graves. German makers Louis Hartman and Henry Esbach joined the firm, ultimately taking control as they brought new money to a cash-poor business, and in 1869 executed a formal merger creating the Boston company – over the objections of Wright who left and attempted to aid the competition literally down the street.

Esbach was responsible for many innovations in design including the first 3-star cornet design. Apprentices to Esbach and the rest included most notably James Warren York (JW York & Son Grand Rapids). The York company in turn spread the Boston legacy widely, with several leading figures of American brassmaking apprenticing there including Tony TJ Getzen and Foster Reynolds. Frank Holton briefly partnered with York prior to starting his well-known enterprise that was responsible for the largest percentage of innovation in trumpet design in the 20th century, including the defining split between “Bach style” and “Schilke style” trumpets.

The Holton company employed TJ Getzen, who headed the shop through the strains of the Great Depression before starting the Getzen company. It recruited Vincent Bach as an artist, giving Bach exposure to modern brass manufacture for the first time – resulting in quite a bit of Holton DNA in Bach horns including the probably William-Frank-innovated taper of the T bell used in the modern 1B, and later in the 1950s, the flat-front tuning slide. The first piston trumpet Bach performed on professionally was a Holton. Holton was also where Reynold Schilke apprenticed, right at the time that new open wraps were being explored. Thus Bach followed the 1914, more strictly Besson in appearance design model, while Schilke ultimately followed the more open Holton Revelation model, though in terms of tonal palate actually worked for a more Besson-like profile than Bach did.

Meanwhile, elementary-school drop-out Henerson White had showed true brilliance in innovating a uniquely American form as update to the classic cornet, but sought to address lingering challenges in design. He hired Foster Reynolds, who brought the Boston-heritage combined with the innovation of Al Johnson from York to HN White/King. Reynolds subsequently founded the FE Reynolds Company, and took the helm at F.E. Olds during their strongest years.

At Olds, Reynolds took an apprentice, Zigmant Kanstul, and passed on the Boston heritage to him. Kanstul also moonlighted with Elden Benge, who had apprenticed to Renold Schilke, thereby getting a double-dose of Boston. To the end of his life, Kanstul remained in that mode, working closely with Byron Autrey, Schilke’s research partner. (with the legacy of both Zig Kanstul and Byron Autrey now being available to BAC through the acquisition of part of both estates)

Lou Duda also worked with Elden Benge, passing that legacy on to son John Duda who rescued the Calicchio company for many years, and ultimately guided the entrance of BAC into the manufacturing realm.

The outliers are CG Conn, Buescher, and Martin. Conn was a grocer and cornetist, Gus Buescher a valve maker, and JH Martin, the younger brother of GR Martin who ran their partnership building Saxon-tradition rotary brass in New York. These three came together at the birth of the Conn company to learn the craft from Gene Dupont, Henry Distin’s right-hand man who had learned from none-other than GA Besson, the father of piston valve brass. (I believe JH Martin was sent to Elhart by Distin, who was working at Martin at the time, having sold his firm in England to Boosey & Co.)

In less than 15 year though, Conn bought the Fiske firm in Massachusetts, inheriting a bunch of employees with not just Allen and Lehnert training, but also Boston. This introduced a small amount of Boston influence to Conn, which was copied by Buescher with features such as Esbach’s patented nested slides featuring prominently in Buescher trumpets of the 20s, 30s and 40s. The original Martin firm failed and JH Martin and his sons (who founded the later Martin company) were welcomed to Conn, where they learned these same elements of Boston design (GR Martin was not invited, and written out of Martin history by his nephews)

Given all of this, the Boston heritage is pervasive throughout American brassmaking. There is no more historic or iconic collector horn one could choose than a classic Boston.

That being said, in terms of playing I find the use limited to 19th century solo literature – and prefer other options actually.

If you want to see a variety of piston-valve Boston models, scroll down to the Boston section of the Virtual Museum page at www.trumpet-history.com .
_________________
Ron Berndt
www.trumpet-history.com

2017 Austin Winds Stage 466
1962 Mt. Vernon Bach 43
1954 Holton 49 Stratodyne
1927 Conn 22B
1957 Holton 27 cornet
1985 Yamaha YEP-621
1975 Yamaha YEP-321 Custom
1965 Besson Baritone
1975 Olds Recording R-20

[Man Of Constant Sorrow]

@ R. Berndt

You are correct. I misread the serial-number. It is 17326. (kinda odd font).

Further ... it reads (engraved/stamped) "Made For The" BOSTON "Musical Instrument Company".
Above all that (horn bell-facing downward) is a prominent,
singular block letter, capital C.
Might this designate the horn is built to be pitched in the key of C ?
There are three tuning-bits; each of a different length. The middle-sized bit seems to pitch the horn at (+/-) Bb (realizing the horn is of high-pitch).
There are two additional tuning slides in the original case ... one being of a "curlique" configuration. I'm guessing (?) that is an A-slide.

Addressing your suggestions, I suspect the horn is not up to modern convention in respect to the pitch, and likely of slightly unusual tone/timbre compared to contemporary orchestral brass horns.

Perhaps (?) I can play it as a C-cornet, as I have several modern Bb cornets. I do have a C-cornet ... a rare Martin Committee ... and, that horn sees occasional use.
_________________
Sub-Optimal Hillbilly Jazz

[OldSchoolEuph]

The corrected serial would then put this around 1905/1906. At this time, Cundy-Bettony was still acquiring the company, which began in 1902 when the name change from Manufactory to Company appears, and completed in 1909 with the departure of the last of the founding families.

I have seen a block "A" on top of the bell crest of typical Bb/A horns. The "C" is interesting. If the horn was meant to be played in C, the first valve slide sleeve will be more than half a centimeter shorter than the normal 4.6/4.7cm measurement (this is just the flat faced tubing from the incised bead near the valves to the end of the sleeve tube).

These cornets, like virtually all without a fixed leadpipe, used pitching shanks to set the key. Typically a Bb and an A shank. The difference in overall length required to play in C rather than Bb is almost double that required to play in Bb rather than A, and if the horn were to have straight pitching shanks for all 3 keys, the player would wind up drastically far behind the horn in A. Thus pre-fixed-leadpipe cornets used a replacement leadpipe device that inserted into the valve-side tuning slide sleeve (and usually had a blank stub in the other sleeve for structural stability) to shorten the horn down to C as on this Boosey.


The tuning slides available with a Boston 3-star were a fixed high pitch slide, a fixed low pitch slide, and for extra $$$, a slide with a rotary valve to go between high pitch and low pitch quickly (though why anyone would need to is a complete mystery to me). The high pitch slide is basically just a crook with legs. The low pitch slide has additional almost 3cm segments inserted ahead of the legs. (Thats an A pitching shank installed on this Boston)


The rotary valve optional slide would look like this

_________________
Ron Berndt
www.trumpet-history.com

2017 Austin Winds Stage 466
1962 Mt. Vernon Bach 43
1954 Holton 49 Stratodyne
1927 Conn 22B
1957 Holton 27 cornet
1985 Yamaha YEP-621
1975 Yamaha YEP-321 Custom
1965 Besson Baritone
1975 Olds Recording R-20

[Man Of Constant Sorrow]

Thank you, for all that detailed information, OldSchoolEuph. Most helpful.

I have been trying the various iterations with the slide selections. I suspect this Boston 3-Star cornet was designed to play in C-pitch, primarily ... and, I rather prefer to use it as such. Will be nice to have another high-quality cornet pitched in C. I seldom need one, but I have found they are useful; especially, when accompanying an organ in liturgical contexts, as well as high-Christian masses and weddings. (I usually use an early Couesnon Monopole Conservatoire C-trumpet, which sounds glorious!).
_________________
Sub-Optimal Hillbilly Jazz

[Man Of Constant Sorrow]

... on further thought ....

I will make a earnest effort to seek-out other applications for this horn as pitched in C.

It occurred to me to get back in-touch with some old bandmates, who enquired of me to join them playing
Hebrew Klesmer music. (a sort of Hebrew/Yiddish folk jazz).
I missed out on an opportunity to play with renown violinist Itzhak Perlman, at his band camp on Shelter Island (Long Island, New York). He loves playing Klezmer music.
This Boston 3-Star Cornet (pitched in C) would be a marvelous instrument in this setting.
_________________
Sub-Optimal Hillbilly Jazz