Italian or German, 1590 - 1610

"A single 'plume' mark on the leather near the lower end. Curved form (curved for left hand lowermost). Boxwood, octagonal below, diamond pattern above. The whole is covered with leather, having annular tooling in three places. Fingerholes and thumbhole as in 26/1 [Ivory cornett Museum no. 1123-1869], the leather round the thumbhole being worn away from use. The top end of the instrument has at some time been cut away, no doubt having deterioriated, and is replaced by a componenet made of horn and comprising a ferrule which fits over the pipe, and a mouthpiece of large size quire inappropriate for the instrument." - Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 104.

This instrument was bought from Mrs Burchett of Brompton Square, London in November 1887 for £7.

Anthony Baines describes it as "Italian or German; late 16th or early 17th century" in his Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments . (London, 1998), p. 104.

The cornett was a wind instrument bored with holes like a flute and fitted with a trumpet-like mouthpiece. They were made either from hollowed-out ivory tusks or two pieces of wood joined together and covered with leather, like this example. This instrument made great demands on the player, and as Roger North (1653 - 1734), a keen amateur musician, observed ' ... the labour on the lips is too great and it is seldom well sounded'. This might help explain its decline to obscurity by about 1700.

404-1887