Stock-and-horn

Description

Ebony, decorated with inlaid ivory and horn; horn bell. Cylindrical pipe with reed enclosed in ebony cap; 7 finger holes, one thumb hole and 2 vent holes in bell; front of pipe flat and slightly recessed at finger holes, back recessed for thumbs. In Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians 5th edn., 'Stock-and-horn', L.G. Langwill suggested that this instrument was that lent by J. Gordon Smith to the Exhibition at the South Kensington Museum in 1872 (see Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments. no.381, plate XV). This seems to be possible: if so, the instrument was apparently then assembled with the stock upside down and with a closure for the thumb hole.