Expert: Kenton Scott - 8/26/2009

Question
I am a fifteen year-old trumpet player in high school and  my grandmother just gave me a cornet for my birthday.  On the bell it says "Lamoreaux Freres model Taris."  It's very old probably over a hundred years old she says but it was my great-great-grandfather's and he passed away twenty or thirty years ago.  I cant find any information on it, so any info you can provide would be appreciated.

Answer
Lamoreaux Freres, Paris  was a tradename used by the Sears (and Robuck) Company.  Sears used a number of such names such as Marceau, Tourville, DuPont, etc.  for instruments they imported.

It could very well be as old as your grandmother says.  I certainly don't have all the Sears catalogs, but I do have one from 1908, and it shows Lamoreaux instuments in it.