[Dixielandjazz] Old Cornet

[James O'Briant]

Elazar wrote:

> Someone I showed the horn to who is supposed 
> to know such things said JW Pepper was a music 
> publishing company that used to buy horns with 
> their own name on them, and that this was a 
> popular thing to do around the turn of the century.

They're called "stencil" horns, and it's still a common practice. 

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, J.W. Pepper was one of
the leading music publishers in the USA, especially for band
music. They're still in business as a sheet music distributor, and
their publication arm is now Charter Publications.

For a time, Pepper also manufactured their own musical
instruments, so the cornet in question may be a stencil horn, or
may have been made by Pepper. 

The J.W. Pepper website has a detailed page of company history,
at:

http://www.jwpepper.com/catalog/pep_history.jsp

A lot of the more recent "history" is really advertising, telling
us how wonderful and innovative they are, but the history up to
WWII is pretty interesting...

Jim O'Briant
Gilroy, CA