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.MarkingsNone
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 mm
ProvenancePreviously 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
On View
Not on view
1825-1830 ca.
