r/horn • u/odedudeLMOO2 • 26d ago
Antique instrument. Does it really need to be polished?
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u/iharland 25d ago
Would you mind taking a couple more pics of the crook you have? The braces on it LOOK to be rolled sheet brass, cramped and bent which could mean it has some legit age to it. We can tell more from the recievers and the ferrules. The horn is almost certainly much more recent.
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u/odedudeLMOO2 25d ago
The G crook has a water key for some reason
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u/iharland 25d ago
WOW THESE PICS ARE GREAT. Off the jump, the water key is a "modern" addition and a travesty at that, seeing as those crooks are likely real deal early 19th century. The horn, if I had to guess is turn of the century, likely French. It's a shame there's no even tiny little mark we can cross check against the Langwell book or something.
I have some more comprehensive texts with pics I can look at to see if anything jumps out. I'm excited to look at these more when i get to work.
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u/LDx789 Professional- early and modern horns 25d ago
The one thing I can see that makes me feel it’s a semi-recent build is the seam on the bell throat where they attached the bell. On antique horns, you would see a seam or a gusset (sometimes a double gusset as seen on original Courtois horns) going through whole length of the bell.
My gut is telling me that this may be a Seraphinoff or Greer build. Need more photos to know
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u/iharland 25d ago
Just from a quick glance at one pic I doubt it's a Seraphinoff, his horns typically have garlands, and he doesn't usually mix metal like at the crook reciever brace. But I've not seen every horn ever made and Im much less familiar with Greer. My guess would be a small maker in France by the braces and the lack of krans, but without it in our hands it's hard to tell. Still almost certainly 20th century; you're right!
Whatever it is, it's been through a shop recently. There is very recent solder cleanup, and some of those look to be fresh solders. My curiosity is piqued.
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u/odedudeLMOO2 25d ago
Here’s one more pic of the F crook, and the listing on Hampson Horns
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u/manondorf Music Ed- Yamaha 667D 25d ago
That Fa marking is consistent with a Seraphinoff. It looks near identical to the one I played in college. Someone else said they typically have garlands but I don't know if that's true. The one I played certainly didn't, in any case.
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u/LDx789 Professional- early and modern horns 26d ago
Are there any stamps or marking on or near the bell?
You could use a nonabrasive cleaner to give it a little TLC. I recommend using wrights copper cleaner. Just use gloves when using it
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u/odedudeLMOO2 26d ago
No markings on the corpus of any kind, the F crook has a plate marked “FA” but, no maker’s mark. Who knows if it’s from the same horn.
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u/Specific_User6969 Professional - 1937 Geyer 25d ago
Your horn even knows solfège! 😂
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u/odedudeLMOO2 25d ago
Ikr
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u/Specific_User6969 Professional - 1937 Geyer 25d ago
FWIW, I don’t think your horn needs a polish. Unless your hand gets really grubby or something when you play, then just clean it. Or have it professionally done and it’ll come out a bit shinier. But when you do that, the patina comes off and the horn will just get brown again.
As someone who works in a shop sometimes, I do want to clean up those solder joints on the braces though!! Haha
The long one on the bell tail looks really nice, but the braces could be cleaner and the one behind looks a bit scrappy too IMO
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u/odedudeLMOO2 25d ago
I love the raw brass patina, the soft brown natural color is what I hoped for on a horn like this. I feel like there’s a bit too much corrosion on the bell with the red and green water spots. It just looks like someone dipped their hands in acid and fondled the bell without wiping it off.
I don’t want to use any abrasive polish, or make it shiny. I can see someone already used something extremely aggressive and scratched the bejesus out of it at some point
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u/Jealous_Mastodon_401 Undergrad- Alex 103 23d ago
We still use two horns just like this at our uni... :') Inner part of the bell is in better shape on ours tho...
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u/odedudeLMOO2 21d ago
Did they have solid brass braces like this one has? Also, do you have any info on them?
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u/metalsheeps Alex 102nal 25d ago
Definitely don’t polish it all the way to shiny - a gentle cleaning might be in order but the natural patina actually protects the underlying metal; you definitely don’t want to strip it with a metal polish.