Box Valve Cornet

I suppose every collection has a conversation piece which has puzzled the collector and generates a wide variety of comments from those viewing the collection. My conversation piece has been this box valve cornet that I acquired over thirty years ago. Some say it is extremely rare and an important piece. Others say that it is someones idea of a bad joke.

Either way, I still don’t have an answer and would like to solicit comments from those interested just what this is. I know that there are probably less than 10 known box valved instruments in existence.  Mine certainly doesn’t look like the two I saw in the museum in Nuerenberg Germany. I know that Quimbey attempted a box valve horn in the 1870s but have never seen an example of one.

A friend told me of the existence of this horn in the late 1970s and I was fortunate enough to be the successful bidder on it. It is not a complete horn and is missing the lead pipe and bottom plate for the box valve section. The bell section is obviously an E flat Sheppard crook cornet, common in the 1870s. The valve section is like nothing I have ever seen. Can you help me identify it?

To restore or not to restore

There are two schools of thought here and one most collectors have pondered at one time or another. The most difficult decision for me was when I had to decide what to do with my box valve cornet. I acquired it in 1970 at an antique shop in Illinois and since it looked so strange, I wanted to research box valves. I soon discovered that box valves are the rarest kind of valves and finding an instrument in a collection was almost impossible. In the early 1970s while visiting Germany, I found two instruments at a museum in Nuremberg that were made by the inventor of the box valve, Schuster, in the 1820s. From the U.S. Patent office, I acquired a copy of the Quimbey patent for horns they intend to make in the 1870, but in searching for box valved horns I discovered that there were very few in existence. One in a Museum in Rhineland Germany and another at the Shrine to Music in Vermilion S.D.

 

Since my instrument was incomplete (missing the lead pipe, one valve slide and one square valve mechanism, I had nothing to go on in completing the restoration. Finally, Byron Autrey attempted to recreate the missing 1st valve mechanism and was quite successful, but would not attempt further restoration as he had nothing to   use as a model. Bob Pallansch in Virginia also would not attempt it for the same reason

 

I have finally given up my quest for restoration and I believe there are probably no more than ten existing horns with box (square) valves in collections today. So, this mission is unaccomplished unless there is someone out there with another example of a horn with box valves. The valve was invented by Schuster in the early 1820s and Quimbey was the last to market a successful horn.  The box valve seems to have died a quiet death in 1870, never to be heard from again. Just another dilemma for a horn collector desiring a restoration.