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Valve horn, B-flat

Valve horn, B-flat

Vernacular name:Fürst-Pless-Horn
Alternate name:Hunting horn
Date: 1986
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 signature: Fürst-Pless
Stamped on horizontal spiral spring support bar: 3
DescriptionBrass, German silver, 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 Leipzig spiral-spring return, windway 3-2-1.

Telescopic nickel-silver tuning slide; silver trumpet mouthpiece, stamped: KÜHNL 13

Originally developed in the 1870s as a wide-bore hunting horn without valves, and named after Count Pless, similar wide-bore instruments with rotary valves are in use today. The Fürst Pless horn continues the tradition of circular flugelhorns and wide-bore post horns.

The ball-and-socket joint construction found on this instrument was developed by Fritz Knopf, Markneukirchen, Germany, about 1948.
DimensionsHeight: 247 mm
Tube length: 1315 mm, 1324 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, valve slides): 12 mm, 11 mm, 11 mm
Bore diameter (tuning slide): 11.3 mm
Bell diameter: 124 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Antique Sound, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1987.
Credit Line: Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Not on view
Published ReferencesKlaus, 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), p. 210–11.
Object number: 06882