EEb "Helikon"

[imperialbari]

First of all the length of the valve slides and the general amount of tubing tell this one being not in Eb, but in BBb. The main makers of this type of instruments were and are Cerveny, but there were a very large number of larger and smaller makers in the Czech parts of Czechoslovakia up to the years after WWII. Most had German family names, which was the reason they were expelled from Czechoslovakia after WWII as a retaliation for the very harsh treatment the nazis gave to Czechoslovakia. These German makers mostly were Catholic, which was the reason why they went to Bavaria, where they founded well known brands like Miraphone and Meinl-Weston.

The Protestant makers had been thrown out of Moravia and Bohemia a couple of centuries earlier for religious reasons. They went to Saxony, where the Markgraf gave them a church, hence Markneukirchen.

This present helicon doesn’t immediately scream Cerveny, and coming out of Poland it has even more potential makers than the more obviously Czech/German types have.

Klaus

[DonShirer]

I took the unprecedented step of asking the seller if this was really a Bb baritone. Here is his reply:

Hi.
I'm sure this is EEs (e flat instrument).
This is Amati Kraslice but don't have logo.
Helikon in B flat is much bigger and have much more slides.
I have in my shop much more helikon in F, EEs and B.
Best regards.

Hard to tell since there is no obvious clue to the scale except the distance between valves. Doesn't 'feel' like an Eb alto horn, though. (And it's interesting that he has an F helicon. )

[imperialbari]

I don’t have a good photo of a Czech Eb helicon, but please note that the auction instrument is full circle with a long tuning slide. There is no way at all this could be an Eb instrument.

The photo below here is a B&S Eb helicon.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

A better documentation of a helicon in F. It gas radically less tubing in the main bugle than the sample discussed:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0600842767

[DonShirer]

The seller sent me (unbidden) pictures of two of his other helikons, "one B one Es". All were taken with the same tiled background, enabling a size comparison. The bugle length of the horn in question is a little unusual (the mouthpiece+tuning slide enters the third valve rather than the first) but appears to match that of his B instrument, and the relative lengths of the two B instruments are 4/3 that of the E flat horn, as they should be. Klaus, your eyeball appears to be right on!

I understand Amati and Cerveny have merged, but this wrap does not look like any of their current helicons, so it must date back before the merger.

[imperialbari]

The original Cerveny was one of pioneers in tuba design. And in just about any instrument with rotary valves, his least famed area likely being the French horn. Amati was founded as a Czechoslovak equivalent of the various GDR state owned conglomerates of previously privately owned makers. Amati had their own stencil brand Lignatone. They were marketed in the UK, partially as the discount lines of Boosey & Hawkes, under names like Markis, Corton, and LaFleur.

Their marketing scheme appears having Cerveny as the brand for high end rotary brasses (600, 700, and 800 series).The piston instruments and the more modestly equipped rotary instruments (300, 400) are branded Amati.

As for telling the pitch of any circulatory brass instrument there is at least one rule: full circle bass instruments in F or Eb always have very little main bugle tubing around their valve blocks. And their tuning slides never have very long branches.

Klaus