Images(2)

Natural horn, G

Date1755 ca.

Place MadeNuremberg, Germany, Europe

Serial No.none

SignedEngraved on bell garland: I. W. HAAS, Nürnberg.MarkingsMaster’s mark with initials engraved on bell garland: [hare leaping left, looking backwards] IWH. City inspection mark (hallmark) stamped on bell garland: N [incised zigzag-line].DescriptionSolid silver; mouthpiece, garland, and bell interior gold plated; garland with scallop-shell decoration, engraved cross-hatching and tree decoration, applied cast hunting figures; Nürnberg rim, rolled wire (same pattern as in NMM 7212); original mouthpiece soldered to receiver ferrule with engraved geometric decoration (triangles).

This small signalling horn was likely used for the hunt, possibly in an aristocratic setting, and shows the multitude of horn sizes made in Nuremberg workshops.
DimensionsHeight: 203 mm
Tube length: 767 mm
Bell diameter: 107 mm
ProvenancePreviously owned by Barons Albert and Nathaniel von Rothschild, Vienna, Austria, whose art collection was confiscated by the Nazis in 1938. Returned to the Rothschild family in 1998 by the Austrian state. Sold by Christie's auction house in London, July 8, 1999, to unknown owner. Purchased from Sotheby's, London, England, on November 29, 2006.
Published ReferencesSabine Katharina Klaus, 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. 98, 110, 115-16, 126-27, 132-34, 137, 152-53, 160, 264.

-------, "Splendid 18th-century Nürnberg Silver Horn from the Rothschild Collection finds a Home in the NMM," National Music Museum Newsletter 34, no. 2 (May 2007), pp. 4-5.

Sotheby’s Catalog, Important Silver, Gold Boxes & Objects of Vertu, London, November 29, 2006, lot # 119, p. 96.

Christie’s South Kensington, Musical Instruments from the von Rothschild Collection, London, June 16, 1999, lot # 49, p. 76.

Willi Wörthmüller, "Die Instrumente der Nürnberger Trompeten- u. Posaunenmacher," Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 46 (1955), p. 437.

Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 2006

Object number13000

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