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{The Brussels Musical Instruments Museum Oboe Collection}
Stefaan Verdegem - Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel
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IND ?> Inv. number
2320
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CN/NP ?> Common name / Nominal Pitch
Oboe in C
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TS ?> Type or system
3 keys
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MK ?> Maker
Hotteterre / Debey
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IN ?> Mark, inscriptions
(six-point star) / N / HOTTETERRE – on TJ and MJ;
I / DEBEY. / (pistil with stamens) – on B.
- PL ?> Place of origin Paris
- DM ?> Date of making End of the 17th beginning of the 18th century.
- MATERIALS Boxwood with ivory mounts, brass keys.
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MEASUREMENTS
Full measurements courtesy Marcel Ponseele, drawings by Johannes Fankhauser.
- full_measurements1
- Body Length 589.4mm
- TJ length (body + tenon) 215.5mm + 25.2mm
- MJ length (body +tenon) 219.6mm + 29.2mm
- B length 154.3mm
- Acoustic Length 330mm
- BORE
- Minimal bore 6.4mm
- Reed well diameter 9.4mm
- Bore at end of TJ 12.0mm
- Bore at top of MJ 11.5mm
- Bore at end of MJ 18.3mm
- Bore at top of B 20.7mm
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TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
Brass keys with round flat flaps, type Young-S for C-key; type Heyde-179/1 for Eb-key, the keyhead being the mirror of its touch.
Raised key rings circular.
SATB (springs attached to the body).
3rd and 4th hole doubled with finger cove.
Bell with 2 vent-holes and inner rim.
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FL ?> Faults
Good condition. Crack in TJ (?repaired). 2 cracks in MJ. Several cracks in bell (some of them repaired?).
Top finial ivory mount and bell bottom ivory mount are probably not original.
Left-Eb key missing.
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PA ?> Playing Accessories
Reed (not original) for display only.
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UP ?> Usable Pitch
A = c403-405Hz with reed TL 80mm / staple 58mm / tip width 9.2mm; and with reed TL 81mm / 2-part staple 40.5mm+27mm / tip width 9.5mm.
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PC ?> Performance Characteristics
Octave d'-d'' too small (bell?).
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FM ?> Further information on maker
Giannini (1993b) p.377.
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SR ?> Specific literature Reference
Mahillon (R1978) Vol.IV pp.194-5.
Haynes (2001) p.80 as an example of type-A2 hautboy, p.467, listing rudimentary measurements, and p.469 discussing the pitch.
Listed in Young (1993) p.124. Debey bell p.53.
Mentioned in Waterhouse (1993) p.182 (mistakenly as B-Berlin).
Figured in Adkins (1999) p.111 as an example of the incidental use of the golden mean on top baluster and finial.
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Comparable instruments
Antwerp, Vleeshuis Museum: Debey oboe AV.0.019.028 (Formerly Bruges Gruuthuuse Museum M 53).
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Remarks
Ascribed to Nicolas dit ‘Colin’ Hotteterre by Haynes (2001) p.343.
Top joint might be shortened through time, according to Marcel Ponseele.
Bell by Debey. Very large vent-holes.
Bell inscription device under DEBEY partly worn away, but clearly identical to the Antwerp Vleeshuis Debey oboe; see Awouters, De Keyser & Vandenberghe (1985) p.47 for stamp detail of the pistil with stamens.
Other sources have different hypotheses about this device:
- ‘I’ or ‘T’, not ‘1’, according to Young (1993) p.53 about this bell
- Possibly (?)flower, according to Waterhouse (1993) p.182
- Possibly (?)fleur-de-lis according to Young (1993) p.53 about the mark on the Debey oboe (ex-Bruges, Gruuthuse Museum) in Antwerp Vleeshuis Museum (B).
Nevertheless the ‘pistil with stamens’ makes sense taking into account that Debey – whose provenance is not known – is associated by Waterhouse (1993) with a maker De Bey or De Bye, who appears in 18th century auction lists. This might point towards a provenance of the Low Countries. Since 'De Bey' means ‘the bee’ in old Dutch this ‘pistil and stamens’ device seems to be logical.
{Hotteterre / Debey}
