Description
Technical description: Brass, bell with wide gusset; german silver garland width 40; german silver stay plates on bell and main tube, crook receiver sheath, mouthpiece receiver sheath on crook, and valve parts. Crook in F with two coils – most likely not original. German silver thumb ring for L0. No water-key or fitting for music-card holder. Three rotary valves, valve touches and garland of German silver. Garland and valves engraved floral pattern.
Valve type: 3 rotary valve with long connecting arms (in the manner of Wienerpumpen); cork buffers mounted on rotors; springs in drums with touchpieces attached to spring drums.
Signature: Inscribed onto the garland: Leopold Uhlmann and Sohn / K: K: Hof / Instrumententen Fubrikin Wien.
Measurements: corpus diameter 296mm; bell diameter 287mm.
Repair History: Brass ferrule on main tune where gripped by left hand with reinforcement patches on either side. The crook, although appropriate, is not original; it was put with this horn by the donor.
Accessories: Donated with case. Case covered with a deep purple/brown synthetic material with a snake skin pattern. Interior with a velvet lining of the same colour. The case has gold hardware which is showing signs of wear in the form of scratching. The case itself shows signs of wear around its seams where the fabric is coming away from the main body of the case and there are areas where the fabric is missing entirely. There are some splashes of red paint on the case as well. The case has a white adhesive sticker on one side which reads, “Name: Tim Hunter / Instrument: French Horn.” The other side has a metal badge which reads, “GEBR. / ALEXANDER / MAINZ”, a European Union sticker and a Yellow Sticker for the Scottish National Orchestra which reads “SNO / Scottish National Orchestra.
Cultural/Historical importance: The Vienna Horn is distinguishable from standard horns by its double piston Vienna valves, also known as pumpenvalves, its distinctly smaller bore size and its removable leadpipe known as the crook. This style of horn is less commonly used than other horns and tends to have a much brighter sound than standard horns. This type of horn is still used in Vienna but is mainly used for 19th-century romantic pieces. This specific horn was produced by Uhlmann and Sohn, one of the most important manufacturers of woodwind and brass instruments in the 19th century. Leopold Uhlmann was a third generation maker and continued the family business of creating brass instruments after his father’s passing. Uhlmann and Sohn instruments are relatively rare. |