Tenor Oboe
about 1710 to 1750 (Made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Tenor oboes are pitched 4 or 5 notes below the treble (or standard) oboe, and were first used in the early 1690s. They were mostly played in royal processions and military marches during the 18th century. The crook-like mouthpiece makes this long instrument less unwieldy to play. This example is the only known surviving tenor oboe made by Thomas Stanesby junior (1692-1754) of London. The Stanesby family made some of the finest wind-instruments in Engliand between about 1690 and 1760.
On loan to Horniman Museum.
On loan to Horniman Museum.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | turned wood resembling cedar, brass ferrule and crook, two brass keys. |
| Brief description | Tenor oboe, by Thomas Stanesby , junior, English, about 1710 - 1750. |
| Physical description | "Of wood resembling cedar, in two joints, with a brass ferrule at the top end into which an angled brass crook is now soldered. Two round brass keys. The finger-holes of the upper joint are very much narrower than those of the lower joint, and many of the holes are bored at a slant upwards or downwards along the axis of the instrument". - Anthony Baines,Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments(London, 1998), p. 97. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Object history | This instrument was purchased by the Museum for £1 in 1882. It had been part of the collections of Carl Engel (1818-1882), an eminent musicologist from Hanover, who published the Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum in 1874. The South Kensington Museum has been known as the Victoria & Albert Museum since 1899. |
| Summary | Tenor oboes are pitched 4 or 5 notes below the treble (or standard) oboe, and were first used in the early 1690s. They were mostly played in royal processions and military marches during the 18th century. The crook-like mouthpiece makes this long instrument less unwieldy to play. This example is the only known surviving tenor oboe made by Thomas Stanesby junior (1692-1754) of London. The Stanesby family made some of the finest wind-instruments in Engliand between about 1690 and 1760. On loan to Horniman Museum. |
| Bibliographic reference | Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 97. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 291-1882 |
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| Record created | June 11, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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