Antique Musical Instruments/E. E. Ridgely Cornet

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Expert: - 4/26/2009


Question

E. E. Ridgely Cornet
I have been given an old cornet that I am curious about. It is a silver cornet
with "Made by E. E. Ridgely New York" inscribed on the bell. It has what
appears to be a serial number, 26690, stamped on the main spit valve lever.
The lead pipe is brass and may be a replacement for the original. The valves
are stamped 25, 26, and 27 for valves 1, 2, and 3, respectively. I cleaned it up
and it is in the shop for further cleaning and repair of the bell, which appears
to have been dropped and landed on the bell. The #1 valve tuning slide is
also slightly bent. Otherwise, the valves and tuning slides are in remarkable
condition. Valve action is very good and when I plug up the vent holes on the
end caps, the valves resist movement indicating to me that they are fairly
airtight. I read one of your previous responses on a horn that has Austria
stamped near the mouthpiece (I assume on the leadpipe). This horn may be
from the same source, but the original leadpipe is probably not the one I
have now. Someone else placed the date of the manufacture as between 1910
and 1925. E. E. Ridgely may have been yet another dealer that bought horns
from Europe and engraved the bell. Any info you may be able to provide will
be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer
I don't have any information on the maker, but it appears to me that the horn is a bit older than the previous estimate.  I would suspect that it is nearer the turn of the 20th century, and it is likely that the original mouthpipe had separate bits rather than having the receiver attached to the horn.  The water key is certainly of an older style, but I would be cautious thinking that it may be original to the horn.  It would be unlikely that the serial would only be on the water key.  You might want to check the valve pistons to see if they might have the serial number on them.  
    Questioner's Rating
    Rating(1-10)Knowledgeability = 10Clarity of Response = 10Politeness = 10
    CommentKenton clearly knows his stuff and was most helpful. Thank you.


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Kenton Scott

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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

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B.S. Ed, M.S.

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