Over-the-shoulder bugle, E-flat
Maker
Elbridge G. Wright
Date1853 ca.
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
Serial No.none
SignedEngraved on bell: Made by / E. G. Wright. / Boston.Markingsnone
DescriptionGerman silver, one bow, telescopic tuning slide with gear adjustment at leadpipe, three top-action string-operated rotary valves (1, ½, 1½), spaced cork, flat-spring return, five keys.
This instrument is one of only two extant over-the-shoulder bugles with three valves and five keys by E. G. Wright; the other example is kept at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Both valve-key bugles match exactly the description of such instruments in Allen Dodworth’s Brass Band School, published in New York in 1853: “soprano cornets have lately been made in this country, combining the advantages of both valves and keys; they have three valves, like the ordinary cornet, with the addition of five keys for the upper notes; the one nearest the bell for the highest A-flat, that with the next for A, the second and third for B-flat, the third and fourth for B, and the fourth and fifth for C."
The positions of the keys are almost exactly the same as those of keys no. 8-12 in E. G. Wrights twelve-key bugle NMM 4893. The bell was formed over the same mandrel as those of keyed bugles NMM 7059 and NMM 7060.
DimensionsHeight: 642 mm
Tube length: 912 mm, 922 mm
Bore diameter receiver: receiver 10.9 mm
Bore diameter valve slides: 11 mm
Bore diameter tuning shank (initial, minimum): 10.3 mm, 10.1 mm
Keyhole position (from bell end): 421 mm, 459 mm, 494 mm, 526 mm, 563 mm
Keyhole diameter: 12 mm, 12 mm, 12 mm, 11 mm, 11 mm
Bell diameter: 114 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1998 from Fred Oster, Vintage Instruments, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Published ReferencesRobert E. Eliason: “D. C. Hall and the Quinby Brothers, Boston Music Industry Leaders: Makers of Brass Instruments with Flat, Round, Square and Piston Valves,” in: Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 33 (2007), p. 94.
-----. “Elbridge G. Wright: Boston Brass Instrument Craftsman 200th Anniversary,” Newsletter of The American Musical Instrument Society 40, no. 1 (Spring 2011), p. .
Sabine K. Klaus. „Over-the-shoulder cornet by E. G. Wright,” in “Historic Instrument Window,” Sabine K. Klaus, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 30, No. 4 (June 2006), p. 41.
-------. “Metallblasinstrumente im Zeitalter des Erfindergeistes” in Valve Brass Music: 200 Jahre Ventilblasinstrumente, ed. by Conny Restle und Christian Breternitz (Berlin: Nicolai, 2014), p. 38, 177.
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. 208-209, 212, 221, 223, 250, 287-289, 310.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07334
On View
Not on view
