This large and quite outlandish instrument is known as a Verdi contrabass trombone. It is rarely seen by audiences nowadays, but maybe we can change that 😉. [Just making the photos was so much fun!] The Verdi contrabass trombone is a member of the trombone family and is the largest form...
This rare Cocuswood English flageolet with alternative piccolo head joint was made by a company led by George BUTLER (1795-1870) – the head of a family of instrument makers that were producing and dealing in brass, woodwind and many other instruments in Dublin and in...
Here is a five-keyed flute by LEONHARDT. Some initial research has led us to a flute made by the same maker at the Michaelstein Abbey collection in Germany. A boxwood clarinet by Leonhardt with the same stamp was also recently sold at auction in the UK. This instrument is crafted...
This is a fabulous ten-keyed flute made in Vienna in 1851 at the workshop of the family of Stephan KOCH (1772-1828). Stephan Koch made all kinds of woodwind instruments, including bassoons, csakans and clarinets in his workshop in Vienna. However, he is most known for his improvements to the...
This is a nice and typical example of a Cocuswood flute made by the famous Italian-born, turned Englishman, Tebaldo MONZANI (1762-1839). It is a three-piece construction. Two head joints are supplied, rather than just one head joint with a tuning slide. [Tuning slides often...
This reform flute was made by Carl KRUSPE Junior (1865-1929) when he was active in Leipzig, Germany, between 1893 and 1929. He was the eldest son of Friedrich Wilhelm KRUSPE (1838-1911) and successor of the Kruspe company, founded by his grandfather Carl KRUSPE Senior (1808-1885) in Erfurt. The flute was...
This sensational conical ring-key flute was fully restored by master woodwind instrument makers. The instrument is crafted in gorgeous Cocuswood with nickel/German silver ring keys and rings. It plays at a pitch of a=440Hz. Furthermore, it was supplied in a brand-new, leather-covered wooden case which...
This spectacular, naturally figured, boxwood romantic flute was made by the woodwind and brass instrument maker, Anton KRAUS (1813-1901). Anton KRAUS was born in 1813 in Eger which was the German name for the town of Cheb in the Czech Republic. He started working for the bassoon maker Wenzel HORAK in...
This extremely rare silent gravity metronome in metal is signed on the front “PATENTED / BREVETE”. On the back it reads “DRP / 350358”. [D.R.P. - Deutsches Reichspatent]. The DRP, or German empire patent, was a patent, assigned from 1877 until 1945. This patent number was assigned in the year...
An 8-keyed flute by the London maker Josiah BLACKMAN (1819-1886), made from Cocuswood with nickel silver keys, finger hole bushings and rings. The rings are beautifully decorated with the Guilloché technique … also called rose engine turning. This technique is rarely found...
Cocuswood is the very dense hardwood of a Caribbean flowering tree called the ‘Brya ebenus’.
‘Brya ebenus’ belongs to the pea family ‘Fabaceae’ and is native to the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Cuba. It also goes by the quite romantic name of Jamaica Rain Tree because it blossoms bright yellow-orange flowers right after it rains.
Cocuswood’s lovely medium to dark reddish-brown colour is further enhanced with dark blackish streaks. With time, its colour darkens. The grain of cocuswood tends to be straight or a bit wavy. It has a wonderful natural lustre and a fine, even texture.
So absolutely nothing to do with coconuts or coconut trees at all! Really!
With its amazing density, hardness and colour, it’s no wonder that this wood was considered to be one of the very best tonewoods and was widely used in the manufacture of woodwind instruments in the 1800s. It was an exotic, tropical alternative to woods such as boxwood, which were widely used at the time. Flutes, oboes and bagpipes were crafted in cocuswood as well as other items such as carvings or inlays.
Back then cocuswood was all the rage and sadly, due to this previous over-exploitation and the small size of its natural habitat, this wonderful natural resource has been commercially exhausted. So, it is not a protected species, but extremely expensive and difficult to source – making it a very special wood indeed.
Roughly serial numbers 1-102 c. 1810, 103-500 c.1811, 501-1000 c. 1814, 1001-1500 c. 1817, 1501-2000 c. 1821
Guilloché or guilloche is a craft that was developed over 300 years ago. Guilloché is a special pattern that is created using various overlapping or interlaced lines. To guilloche means then to mechanically engrave guilloches on an underlying material using pressure. This was done using a special lathe by guillocheurs. The special lathe machines can be rose engines, straight-line engines or brocading machines. By using a mechanical technique, greater precision, delicacy and speed can be achieved.
The origin of the first guilloché machines is not entirely clear. Some claim they were Swiss, while others say they were invented by a Frenchman – an engineer called Guillot. Whatever the case, it was introduced into watchmaking back in 1786. It was then that Abraham-Louis Breguet began using the techniques for decorating the cases and dials of the pocket watches he made. Then Peter Carl Fabergé was responsible for making this technique popular in the 19th century with the iconic eggs that came from his manufacturing.
The machines themselves are extremely expensive and rare nowadays and so are the guillocheurs, with very few places offering training in this artisan technique. Guilloché still survives however. Perhaps this is because CNC machines and computers don’t seem to deliver the same cutting quality and refraction of light.
Maybe there will be a guilloché revival, especially in jewellery for example, where people are always looking for a handmade special and unique item. Until then, we can just wonder at the exquisite results of this age-old technique.
