Images(4)

Mechanical slide trumpet, F, D

Maker George Henry Rodenbostel

Maker Richard Woodham

Date1770-1798 ca.

Place MadeLondon, England, Europe

ModelPrototype of an English mechanical slide trumpet

Serial No.none

SignedEngraved on bell garland: Geo’ Heny Rodenbostel Maker Piccadilly London (script)
MarkingsEngraved on clock-spring cover-plate of slide: Woodham / Inventor / & Maker / EXETER COURT / STRAND LONDON
DescriptionBrass; garland with straight upper edge and floral decoration in repoussé (roses, scrolling foliage, empty cartouche flanked by trumpet and banner); Saxon rim with iron wire insert; three-part flower-decorated ball with groove; rolled ferrules with fluting design of two slightly different styles (some by Rodenbostel, some replaced by Woodham); slide at back bow with clock-spring return-mechanism and fine-tuning device, slide lowers the pitch by a semitone (D) or slightly more (F), but is not long enough for whole-tone alterations.

This is the earliest surviving English mechanical slide trumpet known to date. The instrument was originally made as a natural trumpet by George Henry Rodenbostel and then converted into a slide trumpet by Richard Woodham. The conversion to a slide trumpet may have taken place in collaboration with the trumpeter John Hyde, who claims in his "Preceptor for the Trumpet" (London 1799) to have been the inventor and Richard Woodham the maker of the new slide trumpet. The period of activity of George Henry Rodenbostel and Richard Woodham overlapped, they were both active between ca. 1770 and 1789; slightly different ferrule styles between original and altered parts may indicate, however, that they did not collaborate in the conversion process.
DimensionsHeight: 572 mm
Tube length: 1747 mm (F), 2107 mm (D)
Slide (total length): 399 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum): 12.5 mm, 10.7 mm
Bore diameter at slide: 10 mm
Bell diameter: 117 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 2007 from Sotheby's, London, England.
Previously owned by Francis W. Galpin, R. Morley-Peggy, and Brian Galpin.
Published ReferencesApple, Robert Warren. The Music Composed for Keyed Trumpet. 2022. University of Memphis. PhD Dissertation. p. 43.

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. 17-20, 25-26, 32-33, 48-49, 249.

Klaus, S. K. 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. 165-68, 172-174.

Klaus, S.K. "Slide Trumpet by George Henry Rodenbostel and Richard Woodham," International Trumpet Guild Journal 34, no. 2 (January 2010), p. 48.

Klaus, S.K. "Some Ingenious Mechanical Contrivance: An Extraordinary Slide Trumpet from 18th-Century England," National Music Museum Newsletter 36, no. 1/2 (February/May 2009): pp. 1, 5.

Klaus, S.K. "A Fresh Look at ‘Some Ingenious Mechanical Contrivance’—The Rodenbostel/Woodham Slide Trumpet," Historic Brass Society 20 (2008), pp. 37-67 and cover photo.

Rice, Albert. "Curtis Janssen and a Selection of Outstanding Brasses at the Fiske Museum, The Claremont Colleges, California," Historic Brass Society Journal 17 (2005), p. 90.

Brownlow, Art. The Last Trumpet: A History of the English Slide Trumpet (Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 1996), pp. 46, 47, 49, and 50.

Barton, Peter. "The Woodham-Rodenbostel Slide Trumpet and others, employing the ‘Clock-Spring’ Mechanism," Galpin Society Journal 42 (August 1989), pp. 112-120.

Made for Music: An Exhibition to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Galpin Society for the Study of Musical Instruments (London: Sotheby’s, 1986), no. 146.

The Galpin Society. An Exhibition of European Musical Instruments (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1968), p. 45, no. 314.

Wheeler, Joseph. "Further Notes on the Classic Trumpet," Galpin Society Journal 18 (1965), p. 16.

Adams Hoover, Cynthia. “The Slide Trumpet of the Nineteenth Century,” Brass Quarterly, Vol. VI, No. 4 (Summer 1963): 159-174, esp. 164 and table II.

Langwill, L.G. "Two Rare Eighteenth-Century London Directories," Music and Letters 30, no. 1 (1949): p. 40.

Galpin, Canon Francis W. Old English Instruments of Music, London 1910, fourth edition, revised with supplementary notes by Thurston Dart (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., first edition 1910; fourth edition 1965), plate 42.

Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 2007

Object number13505

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