Tambourine – André Cornet – Drawings – Popular Art – 19th Century – Music

Rare tambourine whose leather membrane is painted with various subjects. A one-legged soldier, a man playing the horn and walking his dog, a moth-type insect, a street painter, a child wearing a dunce's cap, medieval armor and a large portrait of a woman in profile. In the center the name Cornet is engraved twice on the wood of the tambourine as well as on the back of the leather membrane. André Cornet must have been an acrobat or a street musician. Work from the first part of the 19th century. 20cm in diameter 4.5cm thick There were in Paris in 1830, 271 traveling musicians, 220 acrobats, 106 barrel organ players and 135 singers according to the Police Prefecture. Bibliography: Sophie-Anne Leterrier. Popular music and classical music in the 19th century. From the "people" to the "public". p89.