This old bass recorder came my way for an opinion on whether it should become a playable bass or a standard lamp base.
Indulging a bit of idle and slightly morbid curiosity, I posted the photo to the facebook group Recorders Down Under. Text in italics below is quoted, with the lightest of editing, from the discussion there.
I started the ball rolling with an introduction and a question:
I date it at 1950, give or take 5 years. Soft wood, impregnated with paraffin wax, then lacquered – but some of the wax has oozed out and the lacquer has been removed from the lower sections. Joints? Don’t look – it would ruin your day.
How does it play? The left-hand notes are soft and breathy but not horribly out of tune, but the keys don’t seal, the joints leak, the windway is partly blocked with wax and any note that needs the right hand is …ghostly? spectral? something like that, anyway.
It’s stamped “Made in Germany” but without a maker’s name. Would anyone here care to offer a name? Or speak up in its defence, to save it from electrocution?
Origins
Margaret seemed to know the breed well and added more detail to my description: Probably German fingering, not baroque /English. Mass produced. Pear wood, lacquered. Not really worth much money. Nostalgic value only. Probably east German. Probably the town Markneukirchen, Alexander Heinrich.
Malcolm: Thanks, Margaret. All pretty close to what I thought, although I hadn’t got as far as a probable maker. I thought the “Made in Germany” stamp without a maker’s name might have meant a factory that produced instruments for several wholesalers, who would then add their own “maker’s” stamp.
Margaret: Yes, you are right. I am guessing that the mystery maker behind the deal was Heinrich. It is difficult to tell from the photo.
Lamp it!
Woodwind instruments, unlike good string instruments, never improve with age.
Old recorders have a technology change working against them, too, since plastic turned out to be a very good material for recorders. Once the design details were worked out, wooden recorders had no hope of competing with plastic in the educational market. They did try, for a decade or so, but that only meant that the quality of cheap wooden recorders fell even lower. The transition occurred in the 1960s and 70s.
Monica was one of several who opted for the lampstand treatment: Lamp it is then! Except if I were making it into a lamp I would strip and refinish the wood before lampifying.
Malcolm: Of course. The lower two sections have already been stripped, as you can see (I’m told the owner’s wife did that but I’m not sure why she stopped). I reckon a clear satin or flat finish is the way to go. You wouldn’t want to try to make it look new, would you?
Monica: Get a music notes lampshade to go with it from Etsy! ( Number 6???)
Malcolm: I will pass that on to the owner, but I think the distressed look of 2 and 8 is a better match for the distressed recorder. (For those that missed Antiques 101, ‘distressed’ means ‘showing signs of long use’. It’s often faked by bashing furniture with chains or bunches of keys.)
David: Yesterday I went shopping for a standard lamp and everything I found was too tacky or glitzy. Now you’ve given me a persuasive need to find a deceased bass, or better still, a contrabass!
Malcolm: You should have no trouble finding an unwanted bass (people, and schools, give up using them but don’t want to just chuck them out) but a contra is a different matter.
- Firstly because there has only ever been one contra in the country for every 10 or 20 basses, 20-50 tenors, 100-500 altos, 1000-5000 sopranos and far-too-many sopranini.
- Secondly because there aren’t any contras as old, and therefore as decrepit, as this bass. They just weren’t around in that period.
- Thirdly because the price and rarity of a contra makes one a far better repair proposition than a bass.
The same logic holds for orchestral woodwinds, incidentally. Googling “clarinet lampstand” or “flute lampstand” gets you whole galleries of photos, but “bassoon lampstand” gets you none at all.
