Miniature natural horn, G
Maker
Johann Wilhelm Haas
Date1681
Place MadeNuremberg, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedEngraved on bell garland: IOHANN . WILHELM . HAAS . NVRNB 1681MarkingsMaster’s mark with initials engraved on bell garland: [leaping hare, looking forward, facing left] I.W.H
City inspection mark (hallmark) stamped on bell: N [incised zigzag line]
DescriptionSolid silver, garland, bell interior, ferrule and mouthpiece gold plated; garland with scallop-shell decoration, floral engraving with tulip, and applied cast angel's heads; Nuremberg rim, rolled wire with ear-of-corn pattern; original mouthpiece soldered to instrument.
This tiny horn was crafted in the year Haas's youngest son Wolf Wilhelm was born, and may have been made to commemorate his birth or baptism. Similar small horns are recorded as batch of honor for high postal officials in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
DimensionsHeight: 113 mm
Tube length: ca. 300 mm
Bell diameter: 65 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1997 from Ernst Buser, Binningen, Switzerland.
Published ReferencesMeucci, Renato, and Gabriele Rocchetti. _The Horn_. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023. (p. 17)
NMM catalog: _As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973-2023)_. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2023. (pp. 65, 68-69)
Kyle MacMillan. "On the Dakota Prairie, Where Instruments Are Fine Art," EMAg (Early Music America) 28, No. 3 (September 2022), p.49.
Sabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 1: Instruments of the Single Harmonic Series (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2012), pp. 108, 110, 114-15, 128-29, 137, 148-51, 153, 264.
-------, "Haas & Haas: A Miniature Horn and a Natural Trumpet from the most famous Nürnberg Workshop," America’s Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 28, no. 2 (May 2001), pp. 4-5.
-------, “Miniature Horn by Johann Wilhelm Haas,” International Trumpet Guild Journal (January 2020), p. 47.
Karin Tebbe, Ursula Timann, and Thomas Eser, Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1541-1868, Volume 1: Meister, Werke, Marken (Nuremberg: Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 2007), Part 1: Text, p. 505; Part 2: Tafeln, 993.
Stephen Roe and Graham Wells, "London Salesrooms," Early Music (October 1981), p. 529.
Catalogue of Fine European Silver, Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, Geneva, 5th May 1981, p. 66.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07213
On View
Not on view
