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HAWKES & SON piston horn
£770.00
HAWKES & SON 'EXCELSIOR SONOROUS'
with crooks for F, Eb, A and G
serial no: 38048, approx 1912.
STANDARD DIAMETER BELL (for a French-style piston
horn) 27 cm, with garland ('kranz').
PISTONS: Quite good compression.
WEIGHT: 1.57 kg
The 3 pistons' tuning slides and the slides' outer sleeves are
short enough that the horn can be played as a valve horn in
'A' with the slides pushed fully in.
There are additional marks on the slides for playing in G, Eb
and of course, F.
There is a shaped leather case in generally good condition, its lid fully functional, with a strap.
The exterior bell-shaped part of the case bears a label with the name N. J. Seth Smith.
Physical condition: horn body – very good; notably in excellent condition is the garland's crimping onto the inner rim of the bell flare. The crooks, although in good condition; have a few very small 'non-invasive' dings.
The F crook appears older than the horn, probably because it has had the most use. I also wonder whether these current two Hawkes horns, owned by the same family, were used as a pair, with the F crooks occasionally swapped around, contextually.
Performance: the horn with a crook in place feels attractively lightweight in the playing position, and plays very well, if slightly less centred in tone than the other 'Excelsior Sonorous' on this web site.
Interestingly, this horn feels that it has been 'blown-in'
and used mostly as the 'low horn' of the pair.
The reason for the main tuning slide's
removable extensions is that, prior to the B&H
merger in 1930, Hawkes & Son invariably built horns to
play at the old British 'high pitch' (unlike their rivals, Boosey,
who offered their instruments at both pitches:
'LP'and 'HP').
The very long slide seen in photo # 4 will lower
the basic pitch to A435 / A430.
The photos can be viewed in greater detail
by opening and saving them.
Halstead Music Ltd acts as an agent only,
accepting no responsibility as a principal
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd.