Double horn, F, B-flat
Maker
Johann Eduard Kruspe
Date1899 ca.
Place MadeErfurt, Germany, Europe
ModelD.R.G.M. 84240
Serial No.None
SignedEngraved on the bell: Ed. Kruspe / Herzgl. S. M. Hoflieferant / Erfurt MarkingsEngraved below the signature on bell: D. R. G. M. 182267
Stamped on each valve bottom cap, valve inner cap, and valve casing: 3 2 1
DescriptionThis is a rare example of the first full double horn designs made by Firma Ed. Kruspe. It is based on the company's 1897 utility patent described in D.R.G.M. 84240, designed by Fritz Kruspe (son of the founder, Johann Eduard Kruspe) and Edmund Gumpert (horn player in the Saxony-Meiningen Ducal Hofkapelle, and nephew of Leipzig horn virtuoso Friedrich Gumpert). The design includes a two-story F/B-flat set of valves and slides, and dual tandem change valves.
The horn is essentially built in brass with nickel-silver trim. It has five side-action, string-operated rotary valves with mechanical linkages, in which two are change valves that work in tandem (Gumpert-Kruspe system 1897), and coiled-spring return mechanisms. The touchpieces have a typical teardrop shape and no decoration, and there is a finger hook on the bell tube.
This design is similar to the first double horn that American horn player, Anton Horner (1877-1971), used. Horner is credited with having introduced the German double horn in the US, and founded a distinctively American style of horn playing, whose impact is still present today. The fact that this example was found in the US and bears string-operated rotary valves, hints at the possibility that it may have been like one of the instruments that Horner first received from Kruspe. Although the register number engraved on the bell does not correspond to this design, D.R.G.M. 182267 (1902) was an improvement made over the D.R.G.M. 84240, in which the dual tandem valves were combined into a single, long rotor. Not long after, Kruspe was using a regular two-story rotor change valve on the Horner Model (D.R.G.M. 232038, 1904, "Kruspe wrap"), and all subsequent horns they produced. It is quite possible that there was an overlapping of parts in the Kruspe workshop.
DimensionsOverall footprint (LxH): 536 x 395mm
Bell diameter: 310mm
F tube length: 3690mm
B-flat tube length: 2715mm
Minimum bore at mouthpiece receiver: 7.4mm
Bore at main tuning slides: 11.6mm / 0.457in
Bore at slides: 11.6mm / 0.457in
ProvenanceInstrument was purchased from Jonathan Ring, professional horn player in the San Francisco Symphony and founding member of The Bay Brass ensemble.
Known provenance for this instrument can be traced back to William Meyers, a brass repairman in St. Louis, Missouri, who had this horn in his workshop since the late 1980s, and restored it to playing condition during the Covid pandemic. Ring purchased it in late 2020.
Undocumented provenance history can be speculated farther back to 1899 and linked to Anton Horner, as traced by Ring, who suspects this instrument may be one of the very first double horns that Horner received from Kruspe in Germany. To date, it is one of only six Kruspe double horns of this early design that have surfaced.
Credit LineClois E. Smith Estate Fund, 2025
Object number15866
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