Since my visit to Ridlington Church I have been in communication with parishioner, Martin Wall a former music teacher, who runs the local singing group. He has had access to the instruments and has previously carried out research and kindly provided the following observations.
“The clarinets were made by Robert Wolf in 1843/4. We can be sure of the dates as they are stamped ‘Robert Wolf, St Martin Le Grand’. Wolf moved premises from 79 Cornhill to St Martin Le Grand in 1843. He died in 1844.
They are all simple system – i.e. the few keys that are present serve only to cover holes beyond the player’s reach (+ plus the register key on the back). There are no kays for non-diatonic notes, and these would have been achieved by ‘forked’ fingering (as on a recorder). At some point Wolf and his partner Christopher Gerock worked with Boehm on a chromatic key system for flutes.
The four instruments: two are of the same length, one being marked ‘B’. This will have been an indication that it was pitched in B flat (following the German notation system where H is B natural and B is B flat). The next smallest is perhaps pitched in E flat. The fourth is very small/high-pitched - perhaps some sort of soprano clarinet.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to get them to sound, beyond an open G (concert F) on the two B flats.
I have found a reference to a flute made by Wolf which is tuned to modern pitch, A=440, so it is likely that all of his instruments were made to this pitch.
The flute is by a different maker (yet to be identified with certainty) and is pitched in F. This would make it a flauto traverso equivalent of the Baroque flauto a bec.
The bassoon The brass horn was made by John Köhler. He was a member of a family of instrument makers, spanning many generations, living near the German town of Kassel. He joined the Royal Lancashire Volunteers on 1st July 1782. After the Regiment was disbanded, his trade card claimed he had been Master of the Regiment’s Band. An illustration on this trade card shows several brass instruments as well as a brass horn listed as a ‘bassoon top’.
His family company continued making brass instruments until1907.
The extra amplification this ‘top’ provides would have been necessary for the bassoon to be effective in an otherwise brass band playing outdoors. It would not have been necessary when playing with a small church band. It is not known how it came to be used in Ridlington Church.”
Following Martin’s most useful information I ferreted out an informative article about the work of the Köhler family in the Historic Brass Society Journal 2004 .
“There is no reason to suppose that the output of the earliest Köhler workshops differed in any way from the standard models of horn, trumpet, etc., and were similar to those made in other London workshops. There is also an eight-keyed bassoon with brass keys and mounts bearing the stamp of George Astor (“G [xA]STOR [& C][o] / LO[N]DO[N]”) in Ridlington Church, Oakham, with a copper bell by John Köhler, inscribed near the rim “John Köhler Maker Whitcomb Street London.” The bell is probably an example of a “Bassoon top” as listed and depicted—to the right of the central motif—on Köhler’s trade card.”
Ref: Lance Whitehead and Arnold Myers, 'The Kohler Family of Brasswind Instrument Makers' Historic Brass Society Journal (ISSN 1045-4616), 2004, 16, pp.89-123.
At a later date I revisited Ridlington Church to take one or two photographs and to look at the violin. I was able to add a small number of observations to Martin Wall’s research.
The bassoon was made by George Astor in his London workshop as confirmed by Whitehead and Myers. Brothers George and John Astor founded their woodwind instrument workshop in London in C1778, which traded until 1831. John Astor moved to America in 1783, where, through various business ventures, he became one of the richest people to have lived in modern history. His great grandson famously died as the wealthiest person aboard the Titanic when it sank in 1912.
Ref: William Waterhouse, 'The New Langwill Index' (1993), p. 12
Two of the clarinets in the case were made by Robert Wolf and stamped accordingly. One was made by John Preston and the other by William Milhouse.
The clarinet made in the Preston workshop is stamped. John (Johannes) Preston started his London musical instrument making workshop in 1774. He made wind instruments, but was also a highly regarded luthier and maker of baroque and classical guitars and pianos (and other musical instruments). He was, in addition, a well-known printer, seller and publisher of music. His son, Thomas Preston, took over the business after his death in 1798, and the business continued until 1834.
Ref: William Waterhouse, 'The New Langwill Index' (1993), p. 311
The clarinet made by William Milhouse is stamped in two places.
They made musical instruments from C1763-1840. Richard Millhouse (senior) began in 1763, and his two sons Richard (junior) and William continued after he died in 1775. Richard senior spelled his surname 'Millhouse', whereas his sons spelled it 'Milhouse' with only one 'l'. The 'Milhouse / Newark' stamp indicates instruments made in the Newark workshop, which was the earlier location for the makers, subsequently closing and/or moving to London around the late 1780s/early 1790s.
Ref: William Waterhouse, 'The New Langwill Index' (1993), p. 264
In researching this maker I found out that St Mary's Church in Carlton le Moorland an old woodwind instrument had been discovered in a chest in the church's vestry, under some 18th century church vestments. Read more about this here: https://musicalinstrumentcrafts.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/rare-famous-250-year-old-milhouse-newark-bassoon-instrument-discovered
The violin is rather more of a mystery. Some fiddlers I know are quite knowledgeable, without exception they describe it as a nineteenth century German violin. It probably is just that, a factory violin produced in Saxony or Bohemia. There were millions made and imported into Britain.
A luthier, I know was more considered in his analysis from seeing the photographs.
“The front looks a little Czech/Viennese to me, but the back looks like it is made of “Plane” which is very French The neck which I can barely see appears to have been made of Birds Eye maple which is quite English although I have also seen it on many Czech/German instruments.
The button looks like the type of thing made for the Viennese market. I cannot tell whether it is made on an inside or an outside mould from the photographs which is a useful indicator.
The wedge under the fingerboard implies a halfway adaptation to a modern instrument, or simply a bad repair - I would want to see if it had a “Spanish heel” which would perversely make me think it is French. So what I glean from the photos seem to pull in different directions - the button shape is indicative of some funny repair too. The bow does not help identification - it could be a victorian imitation of a classical bow.”
The costs of having a luthier making a visit and giving a firmer attribution are beyond the scope of this exercise.
Steve Welton June 2024