Ernst Albert Couturier
Bb/A Conical Bore Cornet
New York
#1019 c.1917

I came across this Couturier cornet and couldn't pass it up even thought it had some pretty poorly done repair work. It looks pretty good all cleaned up but still needs some spot repair on the plating. The main reason for getting it was the bell marking of "New York" rather than the later Elkhart or LaPorte.

Couturier incorporated in New York State in November of 1916 in Mt Vernon and in April of 1917 advertised stock sales. There are only two known cornets marked "New York" and the serial numbers would suggest that they started at 1000 so this would be the 19th one made. By August of 1917, he had moved to Elkhart and bought the Seidel Band Instrument Company to produce his instruments. It's possible that the New York cornets were made in this factory before Couturier purchased it. There are a few instruments marked "Elkhart" before moving to LaPorte, Indiana in October of 1918 where he remained until selling out.

Here is the cornet as I purchased it.

The M is for medium bore which measures 0.442" where it exits the tuning slide.
The bell measures 4.75" and the length is 15.25"

In the photo above I have added a Couturier mouthpiece also marked with "M" which I am assuming is a match for the medium bore. The most time-consuming part of this restoration was that two of the valve spring bases had some pieces of old steel spring completely fused into the brass. No amount of tapping or prying could get them out so I ended up taking a solid brass rod, putting it in the lathe, drilling and tapping a screw into the end, and screwing the spring base on it. A few seconds with a fine tipped tool while spinning the lathe and the old steel popped out.