Marceau & Cie Paris Sears Roebuck & Co. Inc. Agents Chicago Cornet

Description

Historical Background
Marceau & Co.
Paris
This was an inexpensive line of band instruments s
old
through Sears in the early 1900s. Not shown in their
1902
catalog but the illustrations here are from their 1
908
catalog. Based on styles found, these were probably
sold
into the 1930s.   Please see attached exerpt from the 1908 Sears Roebuck & Co. Inc. in photos.
More recent history:
Louis Armstrong’s First Cornet?
On 1 April 2002 the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution)
placed on display a cornet said to have been “the instrument on which Louis Armstrong
learned to play when he was just 12 years old.”
There is reason to doubt that Louis
Armstrong ever played this particular instrument let alone it having been his first.
The instrument was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York in October 2001, on behalf
of its owner, George Finola, curator of the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans, where
it previously had been displayed. Finola is said to have purchased the instrument from the
family of Peter Davis in the 1960s. The Smithsonian Institution paid 8,000 for this
cornet