Alto fagotto, by Wood & Ivy, English, about 1836-1847.

"Of dark-stained wood, in four joints arranged as those of a bassoon, though the bell is short and has an internal flange at the mouth. The seven round brass keys are mounted on brass saddles save for those on the long joint, which are mounted on blocks in the wood of the joint. The keys are: on the wing joint, one for the thumb and one for the little finger (C sharp); on the butt, F, A flat, and on the back F sharp; on the long joint, which has an ivory-bushed C hole, keys for D and (outside this) for E flat. The brass crook is bent in a right angle and adds 14 cm of tune-length when inserted." Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments(London, 1998), p. 99.

This instrument was purchased by the Museum for 15 shillings (£0.75) 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.

The Alto fagotto is a high-pitched bassoon, with a clarinet-type mouthpiece, which George Wood developed in about 1830 from an earlier version, known as the Caldeonica, invented in 1825 by William Meilke, a Scottish bandmaster. Wood traded at 50 New Compton Street, London, as G.W. Wood from 1829 until 1836, and subsequently from 1836 until 1847 under the partnership of Wood & Ivy.

299-1882