Marceau Cornet Used by Louis Armstrong

This cornet was made by Marceau in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, around 1914-1915. It is made of brass tubing with three mother-of-pearl-mounted Perinet piston valves. The bell is engraved with foliate decoration. This cornet is engraved:

Marceau
[floral motif]

This cornet was identified by various sources as that on which Louis Armstrong reputedly took lessons from Peter Davis before leaving the New Orleans Colored Waif's Home for Boys (NOCWHB), where he resided for approximately a year and a half between the beginning of 1913 and the summer of 1914, after he was arrested as an eleven-year-old on New Year’s Eve, 1912, for firing a pistol into the air.

After NMAH acquired and displayed the instrument, doubts began to surface within pockets of the historical brass instruments community as to whether this horn was accurately represented by Sotheby’s (and during its initial display, by the NMAH). Following the museum’s awareness of these doubts, NMAH pulled the instrument from view and conducted further research on the instrument. Soon thereafter an article published in volume 15 (2003) of the Historical Brass Society Journal (HBSJ) disputed that Armstrong played this cornet at the NOCWHB. This argument was based upon the authors' assertions that a) Marceau was a trade name for instruments sold exclusively by Sears Roebuck & Co; and b) no Marceau Cornet of this type was listed for sale in Sears catalogs prior to 1920 (Armstrong left the NOCWHB during the summer of 1914).

An addendum following the notes for the HBSJ article indicates that shortly before publication, “it came to our attention that a Marceau cornet identical to the Smithsonian instrument was first offered for sale in The Sears, Roebuck, Fall 1915 catalogue #131(p.902) as the “American Model.” Sotheby’s also further researched the issue following the questions surrounding the veracity of their original authentication of the instrument. A letter dated December 4, 2003 from Leila Dunbar, Senior Vice President of Sotheby’s to museum curator John Hasse shared their discovery of the listing of the same cornet model in the Fall 1915 catalogue. In the letter Dunbar also affirmed their belief that the instrument has “strong provenance” and argued that they have found “additional supporting evidence” and “flaws in the [HBSJ] authors’ central arguments.” The additional supporting evidence is a 1965 photograph of Armstrong and Davis at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, captioned by the New Orleans’ Times-Picayune when it printed a copy of the photograph in its July 4, 2000 edition: “At the New Orleans Jazz Museum in 1965, at its old location on Dumaine Street, Louis Armstrong signs the guest register. Behind him, his childhood music teacher from the Colored Waifs’ Home, Peter Davis, holds Armstrong’s original cornet.” Dunbar continued in the letter, “By comparing the photograph to the Cornet (most especially the configuration of the dents in the bell of the horn) we are able to make a direct match.” Dunbar argued that the authors’ arguments were flawed by pointing out that Sotheby’s discovered the exact cornet model in the Fall 1915 Sears catalog (offered on p. 902 as item number 12d7995 ¼); that the cornet in that catalog was not listed as “new” in “either the catalogue dated 1915 or 1920—unlike another “new” model of cornet that appears on the same page in the 1915 catalogue (see model number 12D7842 ¼…) This indicates that this model may have been available at Sears prior to the 1915 catalogue.” Dunbar also argued out that “while the authors rightly point out that band instruments bearing the name ‘Marceau’ were extensively retailed by Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the United States, it also seems that instruments bearing this inscription were available outside the Sears network. A prior Sears catalogue states: ‘DO NOT BE DECEIVED by retail dealers who claim to be offering Marceau instruments. No dealer in this country can handle them. They can only be obtained through us as sole agents.” Dunbar acknowledged that “there remains a small gap between the 1915 catalogue and Mr. Armstrong’s stay in The New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, but we believe the gap is small enough to be explained either by timing discrepancies between the time the instrument appeared in inventory and the time it appears in the Sears catalogue or by the availability of this instrument outside the Sears network.” Dunbar concluded in the letter to Hasse, “We believe that the Cornet was manufactured in eastern Europe prior to the First World War and, following tradition, provenance and the additional available evidence, was used by Mr. Armstrong during his stay at the Colored Waifs’ Home. We believe that the author’s article is materially incorrect in both its facts and its conclusions. We stand behind the instrument as catalogued at the time it was offered for sale, and invite any questions that you many [sic] have. We trust this allays any concerns you have regarding the Cornet, and look forward to hearing from you soon.”

Thus, additional research is required to better understand the degree of probability that the cornet was played by Armstrong while either in the NOCWHB or, perhaps more likely, shortly thereafter, but in either or both cases while he was under Davis’s tutelage. Evidence also suggests, for example, that Davis continued to teach Armstrong and some other children at the NOCWHB during this period, even after they were released from incarceration. Davis also claimed that Armstrong spent some time living with him after Armstrong was released from the NOCWHB. This information, if confirmed, suggests that Armstrong could have used the cornet while studying with Davis later in 1914 or in 1915 and beyond. We continue to collect evidence on the instrument's provenance and welcome further input from researchers.