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BOOSEY & HAWKES 'Emperor' Alexander 103 copy, 87 years old
£1,649.00
SOLD
Maker: BOOSEY & HAWKES
Model: ‘Emperor’ – a copy of a pre-WWll
Alexander 103.
Serial number: 150226
Type: F/Bb full double
Date: 1937-1938
Bell throat profile: M (medium)
Bore (cylindrical): 11.9 mm
Alloys: copper (bell and branch, yellow brass
(leadpipe) and nickel silver (slides).
Bell flare: fixed
Valve compression: very good for its age; the 4th rotor
was nickel plated about 5 years ago. The 4th valve
thumb plate was modified very recently for 'comfort'
reasons.
Adjustable finger hook.
Lacquer: quite worn over about 40% of the surfaces.
Engraving on the outer bell throat (see photos):
“Emperor”
LP
(eagle and bugle motif below)
Boosey & Hawkes Ltd
Makers
295 Regent St
London W1
150226
N.J.S
General condition: slightly shabby in several places, although there are no ‘invasive’ dings, just a few very small ones that are purely cosmetic.
The horn’s overall appearance is quite startling, the copper bell, branch and tuning slide ‘bows’ contrasting vividly with the nickel silver slides and yellow brass leadpipe.
The brass of the pipe, (which is not fitted with a protective sleeve or ‘chemise’ in the modern fashion) although its lacquer is blemished, seems to be healthy, with no signs of any ‘pinking’.
The extraordinarily eye-catching hexagonal spindle ‘domes’ on the rotor caps are unique, in my experience.
Further details: this is one of the most historically interesting and generally fascinating horns to have come my way in the past 15 years or so.
I am 99% certain that the engraving 'N.J.S' means NEILL (JOSEPH) SANDERS, British horn player, Principal horn of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and for 29 years a member of the Melos Ensemble, London.
This horn may well be the earliest Boosey & Hawkes rotary valved model of double horn in existence, maybe a hand-made prototype for the later B & H ‘Imperial’, which went into mass production in or around 1946, when Alexander 103s were almost impossible to obtain.
Its bell is clearly hand-made, since the ‘stitching’ of the seam and gusset are visible.
The later ‘Imperial’ double was a heavy and solidly-built horn, whereas this one is very light indeed (owing to its hollow rotors and thin gauge brass and copper).
Following its recent overhaul and 4th rotor’s
plating, the ‘Emperor’ plays beautifully, with a
refined, slender and warm tonal palette, similar
to that of the old B & H ‘French’ small-bore
piston horn.
The photos can be viewed in greater detail
by opening and saving them.
Halstead Music acts as an agent only,
accepting no responsibility as a principal.
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd.