Grand Rapids Band Instrument Company- YORK cornet or trumpet

Description

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-Please see photos for condition ~~
IN VERY  GOOD CONDITION
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Grand Rapids Band Instrument Company YORK cornet or trumpet .Just found at local estate auction right out of the attic. Very nice horn with case, no dents or dings i can see. Finding these older horns in this condition is getting very hard to come by!!
Grand Rapids Band Instrument Company was a alternate line of York. Made in the same building as other York horns from 1911 to some unknown date previous to 1930. The added product name was apparently just a way to seek more business by approaching more retail dealers. I have a stencil made for Sears that is exactly the same as one made as a Grand Rapids with only the middle slide reversed......which I posted about someplace on this site. There were various trim levels...at least you could get one in lacquered brass or silver plate. All the cornet or trumpet models I've handled seem to be of quality materials and workmanship and a step above the no quality bottom of the barrel imported central European horns sold by stores like Jenkins as house brands in the early 20th Century.
What's interesting about this cornet is a mystery concerning if a particular famous person ever played one for a brief time. That person is the most famous trumpet player that American has ever produced..even though the instrument is pretty pedestrian. Louis Armstrong would possibly have played a Grand Rapids Band Instrument/York cornet in the early 1920's Maybe on an excursion river boat or maybe somewhere in the Kid Ory to King Oliver time period. Certainly this horn wouldn't have been one he held onto long..even when he was just starting out. If he played it on the boats he would have been a horn he learned to read music with so he could play with what was a "legitimate" band. However..... it's a mystery to me if what I read on Players and Horns is true or no
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