{Braet}

Brass keys with round flat flaps type Young-Y for C-key; type Heyde-179/1 for Eb-keys, the keyhead being the mirror of its touch.

SATB (springs attached to the body).

Raised key rings not circular.

3rd and 4th hole doubled with finger cove.

Bell with 2 vent-holes and inner rim.

Fair condition. Warped body. Top ferrule missing. Inner bell rim chipped. Major (angled) crack around right Eb-hole. A few cracks in bell.

A = c398Hz with reed TL 81mm / 2-part staple 40.5mm + 27mm / tip width 9.5mm, and with reed TL 82mm / staple 59mm

ø 4.7mm / tip width 9mm.

Very nice velvet sound, easy emission.

Quite even intonation.

Ex-Snoeck

Mahillon (R1978) Vol.IV p.359.

Mentioned in Waterhouse (1993) p.43.

Very little is known about Braet. From his family name one could deduce that this maker came from the Low Countries or the 18th century Habsburg area.

This oboe, being a Haynes type-C, is very similar to the Nuremberg Cosins Oboe MIR375, being shorter though and thus probably higher-pitched. The origin of Cosins is also not known, but the family name suggests the Low Countries, and the Habsburg eagle in the mark would place this instrument and/or the maker in the Austrian Netherlands (1715–1795).

If so, these instruments seem to suggest that this type-C was not restricted to Italy in the early 18th century and England in the late 18th century (the “straight-top oboe”), as stated by Bruce Haynes (2001) p.84.

The type-C also appears on Rottenburgh (Brussels) tenor oboes, see MIM 0180, 2618 and 2619. 

Mark possibly removed from bell.

Reed well extremely large.

Possibly pear-wood according to Charles Indekeu.