Date: 1924. Owner unknown.

This instrument appears to be one of Conn's stencil lines. In the "stencil" scheme, A company (Conn) produces instruments with the brand of another company or a store. In this case, for Continental. If this is the instrument I think it is, it is a Conn model number 92A, since the 92A is the only known (!) model produced as a stencil for Continental. That particular model was produced between 1924 and 1926, which leads me to believe the serial number of this instrument (209192) follows the normal Conn serial number list (as opposed to Pan American, which doesn't). Also notice the tapered bottom valve caps. The tapered style bottom valve caps can be seen on Conn instruments in the 1910's and 1920's, reinforcing my belief that this is indeed a 1924 instrument.

As far as I can tell at this point, all Conn cornets built before 1958 take a short shank cornet mouthpiece as opposed to the 2¾" "Bach-style" long shank cornet mouthpiece. The long shank cornet mouthpieces won't properly fit a pre-1958 Conn cornet and won't give the proper intonation or playing characteristics of a short shank cornet mouthpiece. All of Conn's "Connstellation" cornet mouthpieces are long shank mouthpieces. The "Improved Precision" Conn mouthpieces such as the Conn 4 are long shank if there is a "ridge" halfway down the shank, and short shank if there is no ridge (in which case it is a "Precision" mouthpiece). All Conn cornet mouthpieces built before the "Improved Precision" series (ridge), such as the "Precision" series (no ridge) are short shank mouthpieces.