Single horn, B-flat
ALTERNATE NAME(S)
- Five-valve, single B-flat
- French horn
Maker
Lorenzo Sansone
Date1920-1939 ca.
Place MadeNew York City, New York, United States, North America
ModelNo. 4
Serial No.127
SignedStamped on bell: 127 / Model / Lorenzo Sansone / New YorkMarkingsStamped on levers’ assembly stem: 1
Stamped on each valve bottom cap, horizontal push rod, valve inner cap support (on bottom and top), bottom of rotors, bottom of valve stopper:
1 (on fourth valve), 2, 3, 4 (on first valve), 5 (on thumb valve)
DescriptionNickel-silver (body, mechanisms, slides, guards, decorative plates and mounts, braces, ferrules, mouthpiece receiver), iron-alloy (cross-shaped junction hinge pivots, hinge pivots from valve springs), cork (in water-key and valve stoppers), brass (rotors, valve inner cap support, valve casings, water-key pivot screw); some tubings and plate mounts were identified as being silver plated brass. Five side-action rotary valves, with a mechanical linkage for each valve. Nickel-silver touchpieces with teardrop shape and no decoration. F-shaped horizontal push rods. Fifth valve to be played with left thumb has only horizontal push rods. Cork buffers (stoppers) on a semi-circular shaped plate mounted on valve cap. Upper and bottom valve caps grooved in the edges. Only the bottom cap is dismountable. Rotors are made of silver-plated brass and have a rectangular-shaped top stem with one round edge. Main tuning slide pulls up. Each valve has his own tuning slide that pull sideways. The first, second and fifth valve slides are straight. The fifth and second valve slides have a pulling ring on mount plate. The first valve slide has two pulling knobs. The third valve slide has a “pregnant shape” turning upwards. The fourth valve has the typical Sansone “donut” shape with upward wrap. Visible, overlapping tab seam in bell flare with tabs of approximately 1.5mm at irregular distance (between 16-20mm); after the bell brace the distance between tabs shortens considerably (ca.1mm distance); a visible brazing seam with no tabs is also visible throughout the rest of the bell tube. French rim with iron wire insert. No finger support; there is an adjustable nickel-silver hand support. One water key at the end of the leadpipe, made entirely of nickel-silver, with coiled spring mounted on the key’s tubular hinges (nickel-silver key holder and mount plate; brass pivot screw; nickel-silver nipple; cork pad).
The design of the five valve B-flat horn consisted in adding two extra keys to the three already existing in the single B-flat horn and lengthening the tubing from 16 to 23 feet. This would remove the necessity of changing to the F horn in order to have a complete four octave range. The thumb valve is a stopping valve (or muting valve) and it can be used to put the horn in A, or can be tuned to three-quarters of a tone to facilitate good intonation for stopped notes. The fourth valve, pressed by the little finger, puts the horn in F, therefore extending the compass of the instrument.
DimensionsBell diameter: 308mm / 14 in
Full length of F extension valve: 686mm / 27 in
ProvenancePreviously owned by Arthur Mixon, Concord, Massachusetts.
Gift of Arthur Mixon, Fred Macdonald, and Clark Charitable Trust (Timothy A. Taylor, Trustee), Concord, Massachusetts, 2013.
Credit LineGift of Arthur Mixon, Fred Macdonald, and Clark Charitable Trust (Timothy A. Taylor, Trustee), 2013
Object number14806
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