Antique Musical Instruments/Hawkes & Son Cornet

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Expert: - 3/20/2008


Question
Dear Mr Scott. I have been given a couple of vintage cornets in the last couple of days and have spent fruitless hours trying to trace the age through the serial number of one of them and I'm hoping you can help. The one in question is a Hawkes & Son "Clippertone", "Excelsior Sonorous" and has the serial number "31458" it was found in a bomb damaged cellar of a house, only recently fully renovated, in the Beckenham area of London. It's in surprisingly good condition with little damage, in fact the valves even work, it also bears the marking "4th L N L Reg't" and lots of very fine engraving to the bell. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks. Stuart Jenkins.

Answer
Stuart,

The horn dates to somewhere around 1910.  Hawkes started making instruments in 1876, He formed the WH Hawkes and Son Company in 1889.  In 1930 merged with Boosey and Co.

Since it is marked, 4th L N L Reg't, I would assume that the horn was sold to that military unit.

Antique Musical Instruments

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Kenton Scott

Expertise

Please note: My area is BRASS instruments, not other wind, string or percussion instruments. I will provide information on antique, obscure and out of production BRASS instruments. 1) Please don't ask for evaluations, I'll not provide them on this site. 2) I am often asked very similar questions, so I'd invite you to first check on Horn-u-Copia.net. Much of the information I have garnered about this topic, I have posted on this WEB site.

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I perform in several historical bands, have informally researched the area, repair brass instruments, and operate a Forum dedicated to the topic at http://horn-u-copia.net

Education/Credentials
B.S. Ed, M.S.

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