Expert: Kenton Scott - 11/21/2007

Question
I perchest an old selmer cornet at an auction. the cornet has a very short bell and the ingraving reads henri selmer paris and has a lot of wrighting in french. it has 166 engraved on the back of the third valve. most of the gold plating flaked of but some remains. its not in perfict condition but the valves work fine and can be played. i would like to kmow how old it is and how many were made. and wene selmer started to make cornets. thank you. Richard

Answer
Henri Selmer and Alexandre founded Selmer and H&A Selmer.  They took over the workshop of Adolphe Sax in 1928. and started making brass instruments at that time, first under the Sax name until 1933, then under the Millereau name until 1939, before using the Selmer name.  

While Henri was working away in Paris, Alexandre was in the US playing clarinet and building a business.  Alexandre went back to France in 1918, but in 1920 the US company bought out G.W. Haynes.  In 1927, H&A Selmer under George Bundy and Carl Greenleaf (proprietor of Conn) moved to Elkhart Ind.  and began manufacturing brass instruments using a variety of trade names including Selmer USA, Bundy, Free-Tone, Marcil, Raymond, Signet and Manhattan.

The Selmer serial list  have starts wtih 251 in 1931.