“U.S.” MARKED “CROSBY” CLOOS ROSEWOOD FIFE – VERY
ATTRACTIVE INSTRUMENT: This is a very
attractive 19TH Century Rosewood Fife with
the added attraction of being stamped “U.S.” on one of
the nickel silver ferrules. The barrel of the fife is
maker stamped “CROSBY GC”, indicating it was
manufactured by George Cloos of Brooklyn, New York.
There is simply not enough room here to fully delve into
the history of the fifes manufactured by Cloos and
Crosby. Suffice it to say that through more research
than I thought would be necessary for even the most
obscure US military artifact, I am satisfied that this
fife is a “Crosby Model Fife” which was manufactured by
George Cloos of Brooklyn, New York. While there are a
number of web sites dedicated to the history of fifes in
North America, the most scholarly, and the one which
provided the most useful and well documented information
is titled
www.fifemuseum.com. If
US military fifes are of interest to you, I strongly
recommend you visit the site and take the time to digest
their work.
Depending on the criteria
one uses to determine the business life of a company,
there is some room for interpretation in determining
when Cloos began to manufacture fifes. The absolute
fact is that he was not in business prior to 1865 and it
is equally certain that he did not manufacture fifes
during the years of the American Civil War, what you
have been told to the contrary notwithstanding.
That possibility put to
rest, again relying on the in depth research provided on
the Fife Museum web site, for a number of factors
related to Cloos’s professional life, it seems most
likely that this particular fife was manufactured no
earlier than the mid-1880’s.
The lilting tune of the
fife is firmly engrained in the history of U.S. Military
music. Even to this day, the ceremonial band of the
U.S. Army’s Old Guard is a drum and fife corps. The
“U.S.” stamp on the lower ferrule of this fife appears
to have been applied contemporary with the use of the
instrument and not some embellishment which was added
after it passed into the collector market. The
characters were applied individually which is consistent
with the sets of stamps issued at the unit level for
marking the soldier’s equipment. Based on a number of
Indian Wars era photographs of US Army bands, fifes
remained in the army’s inventory through at least the
end of the 19TH Century, so a production date
from the mid-1880’s as described above would still fall
within the years the army bands continued to use the
fife.
This fife, measuring 15 ½”
long, appears to be made of rosewood. The fife is full
form with no damage, no cracks or splits, and it retains
a pleasing aged patina with no serious handling or
storage marks. Both nickel silver ferrules are present
and firmly attached. [NOTE: A new digital
camera and I are still coming to terms and its anyone's
bet who's going to win. In the photographs below,
the ferrules appear to be brass, having a yellow cast to
the color. Trust me, they're nickel silver. There
is a limit to the number of times I'm willing to retake
a photo.]
The maker’s stamp is fully
legible, as is the “U.S.” stamp on the ferrule. No
stretch of imagination could ever credit me with any
musical talent…..in fact, truth be known, the band
director at my high school volunteered to pay me not to
try out for the band after hearing my first audition.
Even at that young age I could take a hint. That being
said, I did manage to torture enough of a whisper of a
tune out of this fife to be able to state that it is
fully functional. There is a cork inserted into the
upper end of the fife – the end that would be closest to
the face when the fife is positioned at the player’s
lips – and while I cannot determine from research why
the cork would have been inserted in the barrel, it does
appear to be as old as the fife and I’m sure there was a
good reason for it.
This is an attractive
example of a 19TH Century Fife with the added
value of being marked “U.S.”. (0365) $250
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