This Eb Eclipse cornet came with an interesting story. This was a family attic heirloom that was said to have been carried by the ancestor in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The man got hit by a bullet that passed through the bell of the cornet but was able to recover and bring the instrument home with him.

From the style of this with the valve caps without the corks, I guessed that this must have been fairly new when this happened if true. The bell doea appear to have a bullet hole as the metal was blown in on the top and out on the bottom. If true, this also means that this was only used for a few years at most so should not have much valve wear.

Except for the bell, this was really not in too bad of shape so the question was do I leave it as is or repair it to working order again? I decided to repair it the best that I could and managed to move the torn flaps of metal back in place and seal them with patches. The top one I did from inside so that the engraving would not be covered. This leaves an ugly line but better than a patch showing.

The serial number 860 would seem to put it into the early 1900s but after doing a comparison of bell engravings, it would seem that they used a different number system than the Bb cornets. The engraving matches those from circa 1896 which also makes the story of the war quite possible.