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C. G. Conn New Invention Circus Bore Cornet |
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C. G. Conn Co. Model: Circus Bore Original cost in 1913 = $110 [$3,550 in 2025] In comparison, the silver-plated model cost $65; quite a price difference for gold and extra engraving. I bought this Conn cornet in "parts only" condition since there were many issues with it including a broken valve. Due to the wonderful engraving and gold plating, it was worth a try to repair it. Here are some views when purchased. Everything was quite dirty, including the case.
Here it was all apart after quite a struggle. The second slide was completely loose and I found that the brace above it was also loose. The list of problems included loose joints, bad dent in shepherd's crook, corroded tuning slide tube, bell dents, and broken third valve.
The valves were also very dirty and pitted. The third valve not only had a loose spring tower, but the valve had a slight curve top to bottom, resulting in about three hours of work to get it straight again and refit it to the casing.
The top tuning slide was corroded and the bottom branch loose. The lower tuning slide was missing the bracket for the Bb/A stop rod mechanism and showed signs of a previous repair.
After completing all repairs and ready to go back together again. Only at this point could I find out if it would play well. I decided to leave the corroded end on the top tuning slide as it wouldn't effect the appearance and would still keep it as original as possible.
I show it here with a Keefer Levy model mouthpiece.
I used some leather strips and brass bolts to fix the original handle and cleaned the case inside and out. There were quite a few missing accessories and a list from the period says this came with two mouthpieces, gold-plated mute, piston wiper, and music holder. From the extra spaces, I would assume that this also came with a set of high-pitch slides.
The Circus Bore design started back in 1907 with Conn's patent valve tubing arrangement shown below. This introduced the lead pipe entering the third valve with a curved passage between the valves similar to the original Wonder patent from 1889.
This design was used on the Perfected Wonder cornet as shown in this 1910 illustration below.
This early illustration of the New Invention cornet from 1911 shows few changes in the design. They say this had an invisible Bb/A change, but in later advertising from 1911 they claimed that this was dropped due to complaints in how it worked. At this point, they just called it the "New Invention" model, then later that year called it the "New Invention Circus Bore."
1913 Circus Bore Cornet illustration with bottom stop rod for Bb/A and showing both high and low pitch slides. They just called it the Circus Bore model at this time. This also shows that the curved inter-valve tuning had also been dropped in favor of more conventional straight passages. In looking at actual examples, I found that the change in design came at around serial number 120000 in 1912.
You could also get this in C with the addition of an extra lead pipe and likely shorter slides.
Cornet valve block from #129817 showing the straighter valve passages and 1907 patent. "L" is for the large 2-1/2 bore of 0.485". These were also avaible in small and medium bores. I had an early Circus Bore cornet #117911 with no bore size marking that turned out to be their 1/2 bore at 0.422".
Another variation in the Circus bore was how they did the stop rod on the tuning slide. The early ones had two L-brackets as this one has and that's how most are found. #136094 below had stamped holders for the rod by 1914.
#136731 from 1914 had these ball ends for the rod.
One advertisement I read said that the "Circus Bore" name was not well received, even though the cornet was. By 1914, they began replacing this with the New Wonder Victor model. As in the auto industry, makers had to come up with something new and better every few years to keep customers excited and maintain their market share.
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