You thought you’d seen it all, but this lovely wind instrument is proof you haven’t! It’s a cross-blown flageolet or flute-flageolet.John PARKER (ca.1757-1813) was highly regarded in the instrument-making trade. He was also an oboist, bass singer and bassoon player. He worked out of 52 Long Lane, Southwark, England for...
The Hirsbrunner or Hirschbrunner family has been making wind instruments for over 200 years. A total of eight generations worked across three companies established in the Swiss towns of Sumiswald, Grünen and Aarau. Christian Hirsbrunner (1748–1815) was the first of 18 members of the family who were involved in the...
This exceptional late-Romantic flute was made by the company Rampone & B. Cazzani & C in Milan. On the death of the famous woodwind instrument maker Agostino RAMPONE (1843-1897), his son Egidio (1872-1937) went into partnership with Battista CAZZANI (1846-1920), a watchmaker and brass instrument manufacturer and married Cazzani’s daughter....
This is a fully restored, eight-keyed, boxwood flute in four sections made by Goulding D’Almaine Potter & Co. D’Almaine & Co. was a firm of musical instrument makers, music sellers, publishers and printers that was in existence in one form or another for around eighty years. It was first established...
This lovely bass clarinet is crafted in grenadilla and nickel silver. This bass clarinet was made by Maino & Orsi. It is a simple (Albert) system clarinet with two independent speakers.The company Maino & Orsi was the fruit of a collaboration and partnership between Paolo MAINO (?-1881) and Romeo ORSI...
This antique B-flat clarinet was made around the beginning of the nineteenth century in Alfeld, which lies on the Leine river in Lower Saxony, Germany. The literature (Hart in the Langwill index) tells us that G. Bock’s instruments were similar to those produced by the STREITWOLF workshop in Gottingen. So, G....
This E-flat alto clarinet is made of grenadilla wood and has nickel silver keys and rings. Its total length is 810 mm, including the mouthpiece. It was made by V. Kohlert’s Söhne, Graslitz and this is stamped on the upper joint.The Kohlert company was founded in 1840 by Vincenz Ferarius...
This antique boxwood fife was made by James JORDAN (1807/8-1852). James Jordan was born in Ireland. At some point, he travelled to Liverpool. He started a new life in England. He was listed as a musical instrument maker and woodwind dealer from around 1830. James Jordan was also an inventor....
This amazing Boehm-system vintage aluminium flute was manufactured by Gerhard Rudolf UEBEL (1915-1991) in Eastern Germany (GDR) in the 1960s. He was the grandson of the founder of the UEBEL company, Friedrich Gustav UEBEL (1855-1915) in Saxony, Germany.Gerhard Rudolf Uebel experimented with new materials and mechanical construction techniques and this...
This brass post horn was made by the Julius Heinrich ZIMMERMANN (1851-1922) company. Zimmermann was an extremely successful entrepreneur in the manufacture of musical instruments and also publishing. He had branches of his company in St. Petersburg, Moscow, London, Riga and Leipzig.This particular instrument is stamped ‘LEIPZIG’, where he set up his...
A post horn is a valveless cylindrical brass instrument with a cupped mouthpiece. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, stage coaches were used to carry letters and parcels. People were also transported and had to endure extremely bumpy rides and often accidents. Along each route or road, there were stations or ‘stages’ where the stagecoaches stopped.
The postillion was the person who guided the horse-drawn coach while actually mounted on the horse or pair of horses. A coachman would control the horse from the actual vehicle itself.
They blew the post horns to announce their arrival at or departure from postal stations. This meant that everything could be ready for when they arrived, including for example, a change of horses. They went into disuse with the modernisation of postal systems. Yet the post horn remains a symbol of mail systems in many countries, including Germany with the Deutsche Post for example.
