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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 589.4 mm
- TJ length (body + tenon) 215.5 mm + 25.2 mm
- MJ length (body +tenon) 219.6 mm + 29.2 mm
- B length 154.3 mm
- Acoustic Length 330 mm
- BORE
- Minimal bore 6.4 mm
- Reed well diameter 9.4 mm
- Bore at end of TJ 12.0 mm
- Bore at top of MJ 11.5 mm
- Bore at end of MJ 18.3 mm
- Bore at top of B 20.7 mm
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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 = c. 403-405 Hz with reed TL 80 mm / staple 58 mm / tip width 9.2 mm; and with reed TL 81 mm / 2-part staple 40.5 mm+27 mm / tip width 9.5 mm.
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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 p. 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
(Bruges, Gruuthuse Museum: Debey oboe 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 Bruges Gruuthuse 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 in Bruges, Gruuthuse 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}
