Bass recorder, F
Maker
Johann Christoph Denner
Date1700 ca.
Place MadeNuremberg, Germany, Europe
SignedStamped within a scroll on head and foot joints: I. C. DENNER / DMarkingsRemnants of three paper labels glued to the body like those on other instruments said to be from the Bricqueville Collection, Versailles, late 19th century.
DescriptionThree sections, with a detachable head cap encircled with a brass band, detachable (reproduction) bocal enters at the top. Fruitwood. Thumbhole and six fingerholes on the main joint, one brass key with a flat, square key cover (corners cut) and a typical, round touchpiece, for the left little finger, on the foot joint.
A crack in the main joint shows an old repair, dating probably from the instrument's active, playing life. Remnants of three paper labels glued to the body are similar to those on other instruments said to be from the de Bricqueville Collection, Versailles, and the instrument may be the "Basse de flute douce de I. C. Denner, une clé, bocal en curve, XVIIe siècle," No. 76 in the Catalogue Sommaire de la Collection D'Instruments de Musique Anciens formée par le Comte de Bricqueville (1895).
This instrument is among the largest of J. C. Denner's surviving bass recorders.
DimensionsOverall length: 1045 mm
Sounding length: 925 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1985 from Tony Bingham, London, England. May have been previously owned by Eugène de Bricqueville, Versailles, France, and published in the 1895 collection catalog.
Published ReferencesAndré P. Larson, "Original bass recorders in the United States," The American Recorder, Vol. XXVI, No. 4 (November 1985), cover and pp. 171-172.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 36.
Wendy Powers, "Checklist of Historic Recorders in American Private and Public Collections," The American Recorder, Vol. XXX, No. 2 (May 1989), p. 62.
André P. Larson, “From the Time of Bach and Handel . . . Museum Adds Rare Recorders From 18th-Century Nurnberg,” America’s Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 24, No. 4 pp. 1-2.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1985
Object number03605
On View
Not on view
