Two have the appearance of the Orchestra Model rotary valve cornet with side action levers (one with a Star and the other without) with the larger bore and bell.
Two of these have the earliest appearance of the engraved legend: "Ne Plus Ultra" (Latin for "no more beyond" or "none better") but without any stars.
There are seven of these known to exist, described on my "Pre-Star” and One Star Cornet page. Sometime around 1875, a similar but newly designed cornet was introduced with a new, larger bell and bore measuring about. The rotary valve version was continued in production for many years after the formation of Boston MIM, although the piston valve was soon redesigned. Judging by the extreme rarity of these today, they must not have been nearly as popular as the rotary valve cornets made in the same few years. Careful measurements of the bells indicate that while the dimensions are very close, they were made on two different bell mandrels. 463" bore measurement and the bell and mouthpipe appear the same at first. It was only about three years previous to the formation of the new business that Wright started producing a piston valve version of his very popular rotary valve Bb cornet. Most of the experienced workers were from German musical instrument making families, the most important being Henry Esbach and Louis Hartmann who became majority owners of the business. shops which had already had a close working relationship for almost two decades. The new company of makers was a merging of the E.G. Sorry about that.Cornets and Trumpets by Boston Musical Instrument Manufactoryīy the time that The Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory was formed in 1869, Boston had been the center of the US brass instrument industry for at least 20 years. I inquired as to where they were getting thatinformation (only wishing to provide web space for it), they answeredvaguely and then discontinued the practice entirely withoutexplanation.
And worse yet, so very few Couesnon instruments are in thehands of the original owners that attempting to establish a data baseof serial numbers and date of manufacture (as has been successfullydone with Benge trumpets) is impossible.For a while one major retailer of used instruments used to attachdates of manufacture on the Couesnons they were selling based on theserial numbers. There seems to be no key or patternto them. I've triedover a number of years to see if anybody in the US or France has thisinformation, or any key to the odd numbers that are found stamped allover some Couesnon instruments.
This question arises all the timeand there appears simply to be no information available. The fire resulted in loss of all the company records, includingthose which would make it possible to determine the year ofmanufacture from the serial number.
In 1978, the contract with Gretchto import Couesnon instruments to the United States was terminatedand new Couesnon instruments have been very rare in the US since thattime. Factories were sold off andin 1969 the main factory in Château Thierry was badly damagedby fire, destroying the archives. However, as sales declined, theprofits dwindled and the losses mounted. According to Richard Dundas, sixty percent of theproduction was exported throughout the world with as much thirtypercent sold in the United States. Unfortunately, these efforts proved ultimatelyineffective, and their traditional market continued to decrease inpopularity to the point that brass bands have almost all disappearedin France. Forexample, they employed Mr Bernard Soustrot (first prize in the 1976Maurice André Competition in Paris) to try all the piccolostrumpets made in the workshop and to give his 'blessing' to these newinstruments. They made aline called 'Monopole Conservatoire' higher quality instruments,trying to gain more customers in conservatory (music students). The public continued to associateCouesnon with the brass band not the orchestral or jazz band.Starting in the 60 's and during the next 20 years, Couesnon tried toexpand its share in markets other than fanfare bands. The C/Bb trumpet marketbecame dominated by Selmer, Courtois, LeBlanc in France and even thelarger American manufacturers. At the end of World War II, the music business started to change,but Couesnon continued to deal primarily with the special needs andinstruments of brass and military bands.