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Henry Keat & Sons, London • c.1900
Keat is fairly well known in the brass world as the maker of the “buglet” – a tiny, tightly-wrapped bugle with an oval-shaped bell rim. Less known is that they made two different pocket cornet models. One was along the lines of the Boosey design, while the other (as shown here) owes more to the design of Keat’s own Buglet. Of the two models, this one was slightly less expensive.
As acquired, the Keat was nickel plated (this appeared to have been done as part of a long-ago overhaul). I chose to have the nickel removed, made all repairs, and later replaced the clearly non-original waterkey with one more in keeping with the period. I decided to leave it in raw brass, which is proably how most of these were made, especially since it has no decorative engraving, just the identifying text stamping.
In addition to the very tightly wound bell (two full loops instead of the far more common 1 1/2), it is also unusual in that the third valve slide is on the right side where one would typically find the tuning slide, while the first and second slides are on the left side. The tuning slide is in the lower rear position. Built to play in C, this came with extention tubes (almost certainly non-original) to drop it to Bb.
Length (shank removed): 7.375”
Bell Diameter: 3.625”
Bore: .455”
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