Basset horn
Maker
Frantisek Doleisch I
Date1793
Place MadeCzech Republic, Europe
Place MadePrague, Bohemia, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedStamped on box: [lion rampant] / DOLEISCH / PRAG / 1793 / [star]MarkingsStamped on barrel: [lion rampant] / DOLEISCH / PRAG / [2 stars]
Stamped on first joint: [lion rampant] / DOLEISCH / PRAG / [2 stars]
Stamped on second joint: [lion rampant] / DOLEISCH / PRAG / [3 stars]
DescriptionBoxwood with horn ferrules. Brass bell and keys. Eight keys.
Invented about 1770, the basset horn is a clarinet whose range is extended down a major third below the lowest note of the regular clarinet. This is made feasible to play by angling the top half of the body back and providing a box (kasten) in which the tubing makes two turns before reaching the metal bell.
This example is made of boxwood with horn trim and eight brass keys. Three other basset horns by Doleisch survive at the National Museum in Prague.
DimensionsBarrel (from bottom to highest point on top): 81 mm
Top joint: 256 mm
Middle joint (from bottom to highest point on top): 141 mm
One-piece bottom joint and buch: 235 mm
Bell: 141 mm
Bore at top of top joint: 13.6 mm
Bore at bottom of top joint: 13.6 mm
Bore at bottom of middle joint: 13.5 mm
Bore at top of bell: 17.5 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1984 from Bernhard von Hünerbein, Cologne, Germany.
Published ReferencesNMM catalog: _As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973-2023)_. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2023. (pp. 20, 24-25)
“1984 Was A Year Marked By Spectacular Acquisitions,” Shrine to Music Museum, Newsletter 12, No. 2 (January 1985), p. 2.
"1984 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society 14, No. 1 (February 1985), p. 4.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 39.
André P. Larson, "In Cedar Rapids, Iowa . . . NMM's Czech and Slovak Treasures are on Exhibit Thru October 17," National Music Museum Newsletter 31, No. 2 (May 2004), pp. 1-2.
Róbert Šebesta and Daniele Kotašová, “The Basset Horns of Franz Doleisch in Czech and Worldwide Instrument Collections,” Musicalia 1-2 (2021), 116-135. (Hard copy in file.)
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1984
Object number03541
On View
Not on view
