Bassoon, C
Maker
John Blockley
Date1755-1765 ca.
Place MadeUllesthorpe, Leicestershire, England, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedInked on two joints: BLOCKLEYMarkingsnone
DescriptionMaple. Brass ferrules and keys. 4 touchpieces.
Several years after Blockley's death, John Nichols commented in his "History and Antiquities of the County Leicester" (1810) that Blockley "by natural genius, without any instruction from others, he acquired the art of making musical wind instruments with great elegance and taste." This instrument is among the earliest surviving English bassoons.
DimensionsOverall length: 1228 mm
Wing joint: 478 mm
Butt joint: 438 mm
Long joint: 480 mm
Bell joint: 310 mm
(excluding tenons)
ProvenancePurchased in 1983 from Phillip T. Young, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Previously owned by Anthony Baines, London, England.
Published ReferencesEric Halfpenny, "The Evolution of the Bassoon in England 1750-1800," Galpin Society Journal, Vol. X (May 1957), plates I and II.
Will Jansen, The Bassoon (Buren, The Netherlands: Frits Knuf, 1978), Vol. I, p. 339.
Phillip T. Young, The Look of Music (Vancouver, Canada: Vancouver Museums and Planetarium, 1980), p. 156. No. 189 in this international exhibition.
"1983 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society, Vol. XIII, No. 2 (June 1984), pp. 5-6.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1983
Object number03336
On View
Not on view
