1890 Lyon and Healy “Beau Ideal” Cornet
This is a shepherds-crook style cornet built by the Chicago-based manufacturer Lyon and Healy, best known for their harps. At this point, a great deal of Lyon and Healy’s products were in fact instruments of questionable quality built in Europe, shipped to Chicago and labeled as Lyon and Healys. The series of the instrument, such as Beau Ideal or Own Make, denoted where the instrument was made, with Beau Ideals being most likely made in France. This instrument also has a removable leadpipe, and would originally have had multiple leadpipes to allow for the different tunings of the time. Its mouthpiece is also heavily engraved, which was less common by the beginning of the 20th century. This instrument appears to be in fair condition for its age, though the first valve button is an immensely tacky replacement, and the case is almost certainly not original, as cornets of this era often used cases which held the instrument upright. The missing leadpipes are not much of a disadvantage for actually playing the instrument in modern contexts, but do make the instrument less historically interesting, as it is incomplete.
