Images(6)

Flugelhorn, B-flat

Alternate name(s)

Contralto Saxhorn

Maker Adolphe Sax

Date1868-1870 ca.

Place MadeParis, France, Europe

Serial No.33560

SignedEngraved at bell rim: 1867 / GRAND PRIX / 33560 / [coat of arms of Second French Empire] / Saxhor [sic] Ctre Alto Infanterie / ADOLPHE SAX / Fteur Breveté de la Mon Milre / DE L’EMPEREUR / 50, Rue St, Georges A PARIS
MarkingsValve cases stamped “1” (first valve), “2” (second valve) and “3” (third valve).
DescriptionSilver-plated brass with gilded highlights and engravings, single loop, telescopic tuning slide at leadpipe, first and third valve of the Berlin piston type, second valve bottom-sprung variation of Périnet valve (1, ½, 1½), screw alignment. Inside of bell engraved with floral garlands.

Original telescopic tuning slide with engraved tendrils and original silver mouthpiece with engraved acanthus leaves, gold plating mostly worn off.

Haine and De Keyser date the serial number 33560 to the year 1868, while Mitroulia’s newly proposed dating scheme of Sax instruments suggests a slighty later date of 1870. The bell front contralto saxhorn was intended for the infantry. The coat of arms in the siganture represents the Second French Empire (1851-1870) under Napoleon III. The elaborate decoration with silver and gold-plating and engravings seems to hint at representational use in the French military. The engraving includes stylized bees, an important element of Napoleonic heraldry, replacing the fleur-de-lis. The transitional valve design with two Berlin valves and a Périnet valve in the middle is characteristic of the period, while Sax offered the same model with three Périnet valves a decade later.
DimensionsHeight: 423 mm
Tube length: 1239 mm, 1247 mm
Bore diamter receiver: 11 mm
Bore diameter valve slides (first, second, third): 9.9 mm, 10.4 mm, 10.4 mm
Bore diameter tuning slide (initial, minimum): 10.4 mm, 10 mm
Bell diameter: 150 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1995 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
Published ReferencesMalou Haine and Ignace de Keyser. Catalogue des Instruments Sax Au Musée Instrumental de Bruxelles (Bruxelles: Musée instrumental, 1980), p. 244.

Evgenia Mitroulia, “Adolphe Sax’s Brasswind Production with a Focus on Saxhorns and Related Instruments,” doctoral dissertation, School of Arts, Culture and Environment, College of Humanities and Social Science, University of Edinburgh, 2011, p. 443.

Sabine K. Klaus, “Flugelhorn (Contralto saxhorn) in B-flat by Adolphe Sax,” in "Historical Instrument Window," International Trumpet Guild Journal 37, no. 2 (January 2013), p. 61.

Sabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 3: Valves Evolve (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2017), pp. 131-135, 300.

Sabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: The Heydey of the Cornet (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2022), pp. 16-17, 23.

Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999

Object number07122

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