Clarinet, B-flat
Date1819-1845 ca.
Place MadeBaltimore, Maryland, United States, North America
Serial No.none
SignedStamped on all joints: EISENBRANT / BALTIMOREMarkingsnone
Description5 sections: barrel, top joint, middle joint, bottom joint, bell. Simple system; 5 brass keys with flat, square covers with notches at corners, mounted in blocks, with springs attached to keys; boxwood body; horn ferrules.
Heinrich Christian Eisenbrandt (b Göttingen, 1790; d Baltimore, 1861) was a German maker of woodwind and brass instruments, who became one of the prominent names in early 19th century American makers.
In order to escape conscription during the Napoleonic Wars, in 1808 Eisenbrandt endured a difficult journey from Germany on a 90-day ship voyage, during which a third of the passengers died of starvation. Ironically, he found himself fighting in the battle of North Point in the War of 1812. Family biographical memoirs also tell about how later in life, he was taken ill with yellow fever, went into a coma lasting two days, and was mistaken for dead. Fortunately, he returned to consciousness during his wife's farewell, but the experience led him to invent and patent (1843) a coffin with an "escape" mechanism on the inside.
An accomplished flautist himself, Eisenbrandt made woodwinds of exceptional value. He made clarinets in the German style and when he first arrived in America, he may have worked for Jacob Anthony in Philadelphia (the earliest American clarinet maker, who advertised himself in 1772). In 1811, Eisenbrandt established his own business, and in 1815, he moved to New York City. He traveled back to Göttingen to work in his father’s workshop (Johann Benjamin Eisenbrandt), but in 1819, he returned and established himself in Baltimore. After his "real" death in 1861, his son Henry William Raphael Eisenbrandt continued the business with manufacturing operations until at least 1918, and dealership until dissolution in 1949.
DimensionsHeight without mouthpiece: 605 mm
Barrel: 59 mm
Upper joint: 192 mm
Middle joint: 110 mm
Lower joint: 134 mm
Bell: 107 mm
(all measurements exclude tenons)
ProvenancePurchased from Mickie Zebley, Lark in the Morning, Mendovino, California, 1988.
Published ReferencesEllsworth, Jane. "Early American Clarinet Makers and Sellers, 1761-1820." _Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society_ 32 (2006): 118.
"Important Acquisitions made by the Museum in 1988." _The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter_ 16, no. 2 (January 1989): 2.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1988
Object number04241
On View
Not on view
1917-1919 ca.