Advanced Search

Valve horn, B-flat

Valve horn, B-flat

Vernacular name:Fürst-Pless-Horn
Alternate name:Hunting horn
Date: 1990
Place Made:Geretsried, Bavaria, Germany, Europe
Model: Model no. 325
Serial No: none
SignedMachine-engraved on bell: BÖHM & MEINL / GERETSRIED / WEST GERMANY
MarkingsEmbossed on oval nickel-silver plaque on bell above the signature: Fürst-Pless
Stamped on valve casings and underside of touch pieces: 15
Stamped on horizontal spiral spring support bar: 2, 15
DescriptionBrass, German silver (garland, valve parts, leadpipe), green artificial leather binding, double coil, telescopic tuning slide with ligature screw at leadpipe, three mechanical-linkage rotary valves (1, ½, 1½) with horseshoe stop, ball and socket joints, and Cologne spiral-spring return, windway 3-2-1.

Telescopic German-silver tuning slide.
Silver trumpet mouthpiece, stamped: KÜHNL 13

This Fürst Pless horn is principally identical to NMM 6882 and was sold under the same model number (325). Minor, modernized design changes include the Cologne spiral spring return, and the more modern shape of the touch pieces and one of the braces.






DimensionsHeight: 250 mm
Tube length: 1315 mm, 1324 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, valve slides): 12 mm, 10.9 mm, 11 mm
Bore diameter (tuning slide): 11.3 mm
Bell diameter: 124 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Antique Sound, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1991.
Credit Line: Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Not on view
Published ReferencesSilva, Ana Sofia. "Digging the Fifties: A Curatorial Perspective on 50 Objects from the NMM Collections." NMM Notes (October 2023): 24-25.

Klaus, Sabine Katharina. 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. 211.

-------. “Metallblasinstrumente im Zeitalter des Erfindergeistes” in Valve Brass Music: 200 Jahre Ventilblasinstrumente, ed. by Conny Restle und Christian Breternitz (Berlin: Nicolai, 2014), p. 41.
Object number: 07050