| Title | Tonk Cornet |
| Date | 1910 |
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| Description | A silver-plated cornet manufactured by Tonk Brothers of Chicago, dating to approximately 1910. The bell, valve casing, and body are extensively engraved with elaborate floral and foliate scrollwork covering virtually the entire surface. An oval medallion on the bell bears the maker's mark reading "Tonk Chicago" in script. The Tonk Brothers cornet is associated with Louis Armstrong's early years, representing the instrument on which he would have developed his foundational technique in New Orleans before his rise to national prominence. Armstrong is known to have played cornets of this era during his formative period in the early 1910s through the early 1920s, before eventually transitioning to the trumpet as his primary instrument. |