Wanted: Info about Boosey & Co. violins
Diwakar
that reads "Boosey & Co. London W". I'm rather curious as to who these
makers are and their methods.
As far as I've been able to ascertain, Boosey and Co. are a firm of
auctioneers.
The violin is a 4/4. I'm unsure as to what wood it's made of.
Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Diwakar.
J. Teske
businesses. They are most noted as music publishers. I would suspect
that they actually make no instruments themselves, but are a marketing
firm much the same as William Lewis and Eastmans (among many others)
are in the US. A lot of these firms market German and more recently
Eastern European and Asian factory violins at all price levels.
Jon Teske
On 22 Jan 2004 06:50:55 -0800, diwaka...@hotmail.com (Diwakar)
wrote:
Natalie Wheatley
Boosey & Co merged with Hawkes & Son (both are British companies) to form
Boosey & Hawkes, which is a very well known company (at least here in the
UK) making many different musical instruments and also publishing music. As
far as I can tell it wasn't ever an auction house, but I may be wrong. The
merger took place in 1930, so that means the violin was made before then, if
that's any help.
The Boosey & Hawkes website at http://www.boosey.com has a little info on
the company history, as does
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1587197.stm (at the bottom of
the page) - the latter says that Boosey & Co dates back to the 1760s.
On the violin itself, I'm afraid I don't know a thing. Boosey & Hawkes
currently distribute, rather than make, violins of varying qualities, mainly
student grade - I think that some of them are branded Hofner, Paesold and
Schroetter nowadays.
Natalie Wheatley
--
"Diwakar" <diwaka...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:28dfe094.0401...@posting.google.com...
Ken Moore
<jdt...@comcast.net> writes
>Boosey, (Now Boosey and Hawkes) is one of the world's bigger music
>businesses. They are most noted as music publishers. I would suspect
>that they actually make no instruments themselves,
That may be true now, but they were making both brass and woodwind
instruments until fairly recently: I saw a TV programme of a bass tuba
being made in one of their factories about 15 years ago. I actually own
a modified Boosey "Sotone" orchestral horn (French style, with end
crooks; it used to have three piston valves) from c. 1920, and a
beautiful Boosey and Hawkes "Regent" cornet, the condition of which is
such that I doubt if it can be more than 30 years old. Post WWII they
made a full double horn based on the acoustic design of the celebrated
Alexander 103, but with heavier metal: more robust, but less good sound.
An ex-professional horn player friend of mine played one during the
first part of his career, c. 1958, and still has it. In woodwind, they
used to make high quality clarinets, but their other instruments were
not particularly good and I suspect they gave up on them and found other
suppliers some time ago.
>but are a marketing
>firm much the same as William Lewis and Eastmans (among many others)
>are in the US. A lot of these firms market German and more recently
>Eastern European and Asian factory violins at all price levels.
Boosey's traditional market was army bands throughout the British
Empire, and they still have a marketing and maintenance organisation in
some Commonwealth countries, with after-sales service, tradition and
availability maintaining sales against stiff competition from more
efficient US production and Far Eastern suppliers with cheaper labour.
Since many army bands would be versatile (our nearest can be a marching
band, a concert band, a light orchestra, a jazz group, etc.) B & H want
to supply string instruments as well as brass and woodwind, but I don't
think they ever made them. Labour is such a high proportion of the cost
of wooden instruments that they would have no hope of achieving adequate
value for money from British manufacture.
--
Ken Moore
K.C....@reading.ac.uk
pg composition student, University of Reading
Ken Moore
<n.m.wh...@durham.ac.uk> writes
>The Boosey & Hawkes website at http://www.boosey.com has a little info on
>the company history, as does
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1587197.stm (at the bottom of
>the page) - the latter says that Boosey & Co dates back to the 1760s.
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music says, "Founded in London by Thomas
Boosey (ii) in 1816, ...". (Possibly Thomas Boosey (i) was working in
music publishing in the 1760s(:-)
Christian Tessier
"Ken Moore" <k...@i12.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
4VNLElA7...@mooremusic.org.uk...
> In article <u1vv00d427ov89pq7...@4ax.com>, J. Teske
> <jdt...@comcast.net> writes
> >Boosey, (Now Boosey and Hawkes) is one of the world's bigger music
> >businesses. They are most noted as music publishers. I would suspect
> >that they actually make no instruments themselves,
>
> That may be true now, but they were making both brass and woodwind
> instruments until fairly recently: I saw a TV programme of a bass tuba
> being made in one of their factories about 15 years ago. I actually own
> a modified Boosey "Sotone" orchestral horn (French style, with end
> crooks; it used to have three piston valves) from c. 1920, and a
> beautiful Boosey and Hawkes "Regent" cornet, the condition of which is
> such that I doubt if it can be more than 30 years old. Post WWII they
> made a full double horn based on the acoustic design of the celebrated
> Alexander 103, but with heavier metal: more robust, but less good sound.
> An ex-professional horn player friend of mine played one during the
> first part of his career, c. 1958, and still has it. In woodwind, they
> used to make high quality clarinets, but their other instruments were
> not particularly good and I suspect they gave up on them and found other
> suppliers some time ago.
>
the French woodwind makers Buffet Crampon, they make some of the best
clarinets.
> >but are a marketing
> >firm much the same as William Lewis and Eastmans (among many others)
> >are in the US. A lot of these firms market German and more recently
> >Eastern European and Asian factory violins at all price levels.
>
> Boosey's traditional market was army bands throughout the British
> Empire, and they still have a marketing and maintenance organisation in
> some Commonwealth countries, with after-sales service, tradition and
> availability maintaining sales against stiff competition from more
> efficient US production and Far Eastern suppliers with cheaper labour.
>
> Since many army bands would be versatile (our nearest can be a marching
> band, a concert band, a light orchestra, a jazz group, etc.) B & H want
> to supply string instruments as well as brass and woodwind, but I don't
> think they ever made them. Labour is such a high proportion of the cost
> of wooden instruments that they would have no hope of achieving adequate
> value for money from British manufacture.
>
B&H are supplying German made string instruments, as well as instruments
manufactured in other eastern european countries.
Christian