Friedrich Gessner
Single Horn




Label:


Friedrich Gessner
Breslau.
Model:
Single with Terminal Crook
Serial Number:
none
Date of Manufacture:
ca. 1918
Key(s):
Determined by terminal crook
Valves:
3 rotary triangular pattern
Bore:
1.10 cm.
Bell Flare:
very wide vee-gusset (ca. 180o)
Bell Throat:
6.5 cm.
Bell Diameter:
31.0 cm.
Base Metal:
Yellow brass with nickel-silver trim
Finish:
unlacquered
.
(clck on photos for larger view)


Friedrich Gessner flourished in Breslau, Germany from 1900 until after 1934. He succeeded E.G. Heidrich ( - 1904) who flourished in Brealau from 1867 to ca. 1900 and was reportedly the chief supplier to the German Army. The two patches on the bell of this horn testify to a history of regular long use. The triangular pattern of the valves was common in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (See another example by Josef Müller). The double horn of M.Jiracek & Sons is a modern example.
The script in the label is unusual. The characters in the middle of the name would appear to be "ll" but with curious descenders. (Compare these with the "s" and "l" in "Breslau"). Instead they are an engraved version of the German script "long" s,  as shown in the 1855 printed example of "Wissenschaft" (below left) or the Sütterlin schrift (below right). 
            

In comparison a flugelhorn by Gessner is known, and is clearly labeled in cursive script (at right, below).







Flugelhorn label (1908)







 
     Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dr. Fiona Elliot for suggesting the similarity of the double-s in the label engraving to the Sütterlin Schrift.


References
Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index of Wind Instrument Makers and Inventors, pub.Tony Bingham, London 1993



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