Images(5)

Keyed bugle, B-flat

ALTERNATE NAME(S)

piccolo keyed bugle

Maker George W. Shaw

Date1845 ca.

Place MadeThompson, Connecticut, United States, North America

Serial No.None

SignedEngraved on German-silver shield at bell: Shaws. Patent. / Aug. 4th. 1845.DescriptionTortoise shell body, nickel-brass keys, one-piece, single loop, nine keys, lowest key open (regulating screw), all others closed; original wooden case and nickel-silver mouthpiece.

2¼-foot B-flat, an octave higher than the regular B-flat keyed bugle.

This is one of only two surviving keyed bugles made of tortoise shell; the other one is kept at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The design is based on US patent no. 4,132, granted to George W. Shaw on August 4, 1845.DimensionsHeight: 238 mm
Tube length: 624 mm
Bore diameter (initial): 8.6 mm
Bell diameter: 80 mm
Keyhole positions (from bell end): 60 mm, 112 mm, 140 mm, 166 mm, 195 mm, 235 mm, 265 mm, 310 mm, 352 mm
Keyhole diameter: 15 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, 9 mm, 9 mm, 9 mm, 8 mm, 8 mm, 7 mmProvenancePreviously owned by Fred Benkovic (Milwaukee, WI). Purchased by Joe Utley in 1992 from Steve Dillon, Woodbridge, New Jersey.Published ReferencesEliason, Robert. Keyed Bugles in the United States, 1972, pp. 20-22.

Banks, Margaret Downie. "Brass Instruments from the Utley Collection Fill the Museum's Horn of Plenty this Harvest Season - Tortoise-Shell is Key Element in Rare Bugle". America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. 26, No. 4 (November 1999) p. 7.

Dudgeon, Ralph T.. The Keyed Bugle second edition (Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2004), 73 and 119.

Eliason, Robert E. “Bugles Beyond Compare: The Presentation E-flat Keyed Bugle in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America,” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 31 (2005): 67–132; esp. 111–13.

Klaus, Sabine Katharina. Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 2: Ways to Expand the Harmonic Series (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2013), pp. 238–40, 259.

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

Object number07070

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