Antique Musical Instruments/odl WJ Dyer cornet

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Expert: - 11/20/2010


Question
What can you tell me about an old cornet that was my husband's grandfather's. It is a silver cornet on the bell it imprinted with Voco-Tone, W.J.Dyer & Bro, St.Paul Minn, USA. The valves are numbered 1,2,3. The 2 valve also has the number 1859 above the 2 and on the reverse side an emblem-shield with letters inside(hard to read), "Union" above and "Label" below. Thank you for any info.

Answer
William John Dyer, fisrt of Boston MA, then Makato & St Paul MN, was Dealer and importer. He became the largest music house west of Chicago. He started in Boston 1855-1868. He moved to Mankato MN 1869-1882, In St Paul from 1882 using the name Dyer & Howard. In 1885, the name was changed to W.H. Dyer and Bro. In business until 1941.

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.

Experience

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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