BuckeyeBrass

I have an old cornet in my possession and was wondering if anyone might be able to shed a little bit of light on it's age, quality, history, approximate value, the manufacturer, etc.
It is a York "Senator" cornet. Markings on it indicate it was made in Czechoslovakia and the serial number appears to be 502025 (the first two digits of the serial number are not imprinted as deeply as the last four, so are not as clearly legible). It is packaged in a nice, suitcase-like hard case that's black with white stitching and has silver metal trim, latches and locks. Both case and instrument are in remarkably good condition. All slides and valves are in good working order.
What little I know about it is as follows:
In 1979, when I was 16 years old, I purchased the instrument at a garage sale for $25 and began to learn how to play it (trombone was my primary instrument a the time). I had casual interest in it until I graduated from high school and left home for college, which ended my brief "musical career". The instrument has been in storage at my parent's home for the past 29 years. I just stumbled across it last night and was curious about it's history, age, quality, value, the manufacturer, etc.
Any information you can provide, or direction to other sources of information about it, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time and assistance.

MFfan

Welcome to the forum! We have a York expert on the forum, OLDLOU, and I imagine he will contribute once he sees the post. He is the Moderator of the York section at Horn-u-copia You can go there, maybe have to register? and find out a lot of history plus photos and observations of many York instruments, including a Senator model.
The original York company of Grand Rapids, Mi, made instruments from the turn of the 20th Cent. to 1940, when the company was sold to Carl Fischer company of New York. I believe the GR factory made horns up to 1971. After WWII York made a number of student to pro models, some of which were imported from Europe, as yours was.

I have read that the York Master model was made in Germany by Boehm and Meinl and the Czech ones likely by one of the largest makers there, Amati-Kraslice. The proprietary rights to the York name were sold to the British Boosey and Hawkes in 1976 and the current York's have no connection to the ones of your era, which may have been the 60's or 70's. I don't know of any detailed manufacturing info.

The Senator was likely a decent student horn, of which I would think you can comment on the quality of the sound. Probably not worth over $100, but ebay would tell the tale. You could go there and used the advanced search for listed and completed sales and see what York trumpets and cornets of various eras are selling for. I don't believe I have seen a York Senator before. Carl Fischer used that name for one of their trumpets, so maybe there is some relation there?

Seems like that instrument should be out of the "closet" and played by someone.

__________________
Dave Rafferty
Lemar Trumpet (peashooter-Conn?)
Lyrical Trumpet (Tokan)

Besson 609 Trumpet
1955-60 Besson 8-10 Trumpet
1948 Besson cornet
1946 King Master Cornet
www.kalamazooconcertband.org

oldlou

I wish that I could add a bit more to what my old buddy Dave has stated, but, I can't.


OLDLOU>>

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