Brass Instruments and other Works of B.F. Richardson, Boston
Benjamin Franklin Richardson was born February 6, 1823 in Framingham Massachusetts, a small town about half way between Boston and Worcester. He was listed in directories as a musician by the late 1840s and newspapers report that he was leader of the Metropolitan Band of Boston and Flagg's Cornet Band in 1858. More interesting is a "Boston Almanac" found by Steve Dillon that shows Richardson in partnership with Henry Sibley in 1847. Sibley was a very successful machinist in Boston and the designer of the American style Eb keyed bugle, made not only by himself, but more famously by Graves and Wright. It is possible that all of the successful brass instrument makers in Boston had ties to Sibley, perhaps needing his skills to produce the specialized tools and parts needed in the trade.
By 1849, Richardson was at 33 Court St., the same address as Henry Prentiss, well known as a music publisher, importer and dealer in all sorts of musical merchandise, including brass instruments made in Europe. It is believed that woodwinds were made in that shop as well.
In 1852, Richardson was in partnership with J. Lathrop Allen, where he must have learned more about manufacturing brass instruments. It was at this time that Allen was first making his unique rotary valves with flat windways that quickened the valve action. In the 1850 and 1860 censuses he was listed as a musician, but in the Boston directories for the same years, he was listed as musical instrument maker. He was also a secretary of the Boston Musician’s Union during the 1860s.
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In 1855, he was listed in Boston directories as “Mus. Instr. Mkr.” at 19 Washington Street at which time he made the circular cornet illustrated above. This is in the key of C with ascending whole step fourth valve, raising the pitch to D. The idea of an ascending valve in a soprano instrument was re-invented in the late 19th century by Merri Franquin and manufactured by Jerome Thibouville-Lamy. Also interesting is to compare the bore profile with later Boston made Bb and C cornets. Those made after the late 1850s are very close copies of the cornets introduced by the French makers Courtois and Besson several years earlier. Earlier American cornets such as this, Richardson's Bb cornet illustrated below and Fiske's circular cornet featured elsewhere on this site, have very short mouthpipes leading into a fairly small bore valve section and end with wider bell flares. It would appear that these earlier US made cornets were influenced more by early English cornets (cornopeans) and, perhaps, German band trumpets, before the influence of French cornet design was fully felt.
In 1853 and 1854, the famous touring orchestra of Louis Jullien came to America, playing concerts, mostly in New York, but some in Boston. The famous cornet soloist, Hermann Koenig was heard by tens of thousands of Americans, playing his Courtois Bb cornet, stimulating a demand for such instruments here. Jullien was the London dealer for Courtois instruments and traveling with him was S. Arthur Chappell, who took over this business in 1859. They were supplying these cornets through New York dealer Edward Hopkins in the 1870s.
It is well known that small brass instrument makers have always purchased various parts and assemblies from other makers. This is still the case today, including purchases ranging from minor small parts to complete instruments. There is no way of knowing what B.F. Richardson did or didn't make, but there is clear evidence in this instrument of parts made by different makers. All the known instruments by Richardson have these distinct flat windway valves with the caps allowing removal of the rotor on the opposite side from where the valve is actuated, opposite of those by Allen, Graves Wright and others. In all of these instruments the valve parts are numbered with tally marks or Roman numerals indicating all the parts for each valve as seen in the fourth photo. The next two photos show the levers and saddles that are stamped with tiny Arabic numbers, clearly by a different maker than made the rotary assemblies.
The next photo below was taken during restoration and shows the tubing that enters and exits the valve casings. On the left is where the mouthpipe connects and the right is where the first valve connects to the second valve. In the latter case, the tubing never becomes completely round, but rather connects with an oval shaped ferrule. This differs from valves made in the Allen, Hall and Quinby shops in which these connections are all round even though the flattened connection to the casing is longer and thinner. The bore measured in the valve slides is .434" and the bell diameter is 5 1/16".
The cornet illustrated below was made between 1856 and 1859 when the shop was at 26 Washington St. during some of those independent years and exhibits a fairly high level of skill. The flat windway rotary valves are similar to those that he would have experienced in Allen's shop and exhibit the shape of the valve knuckles more similar to those seen on Henry Lehnert's rotary valves in the next decade.
Notice that the first and second valve slides are interchangeable, allowing the player to choose the fingerings. This was a time when the design of brass instruments was in a state of flux throughout the western world. The Bb cornet was emerging as the dominant voice in Europe and Britain and the harmony to the Eb keyed and valve bugle in the US. Rotary valves with top action lever as seen here were the most popular choice domestically. The bore measures .429", the overall length with shank removed is 13 3/8" and the bell diameter is 5 1/16".
An Eb tuba signed by Richardson and an Eb valve bugle without signature in Mark Elrod's collection may be from this time period.
It is interesting to consult the1867 Sanborn Insurance Map which is available on Harvard Library’s website and an earlier fire insurance map published in 1861 by C. Pinney that is available from the Boston Public Library. These maps show the buildings including number of stories, building materials, walls, doors, windows as well as the location of steam boilers for running steam engines. By comparing these maps, we can see that this was a time of rebuilding older, dangerous and derelict buildings, but also more than doubling the amount of steam power available. The snip below, from the 1867 map shows the building that contained 19 Washington Street labelled “Printing Establishment” and 26 Washington, just across the street and labelled “Book Bind.”, where Richardson moved next. Both of these are adjacent to steam boilers (shown as black rectangles), indicating that there was most likely power available from shafting driven by a steam engine. However, the 1861 map indicates that these boilers had not yet been installed and would not have been available during Richardson’s tenancy in 1855 to 1859. He and his neighbors still had to rely on human power only to run machinery and using centuries old hand techniques for much of the work.
In 1861, he was in partnership with John Bayley Sr., an English cornetist who designed a cornet with a straight, fixed mouthpipe ending in a narrow tuning slide and a long, single curve bell hanging below the valve section. In 1862, Bayley registered this design in England along with a similar cornet with piston valves that was produced by Kohler for several decades. The stated purpose of the second design was to allow all the moisture to collect in the main tuning slide where a waterkey was located. Several of each design exists in collections today including one by Richardson with six independent rotary valves in University of Edinburgh’s collection. Interestingly, Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory published an illustration of this model in their first catalog of 1869. We will likely never know the connection between the two. While it is possible that E.G. Wright was supplying materials and/or services to Richardson, it is very possible that the design was appropriated. None by Wright or Boston are known to exist.
The ad below appeared in the Boston Register in 1862, a time between the Bailey and Lehnert partnerships. The cornet illustrated is of the same basic design that was made in Boston by Allen and Hall at that time. Perhaps the slightly redesigned valve knuckle was one of the improvements that are indicated in the ad. The cornet illustrated appears to have the same valve design as seen in this cornet, including the flat windways and valve caps on the left side (in playing position) rather than on the right as seen on Allen, Lehnert and almost all other Boston made rotary valves. It's especially interesting that he states "Importer and practical manufacturer of Musical Instruments". It is possible that he was having instruments and/or parts made in Europe to his designs or just importing the sorts of instruments that he didn't make.
In about 1865, a new partnership was formed at 38 Portland Street with Carl Lehnert, who with his brother Henry, had been listed as musical instrument makers in the Boston directories since at least 1861. At the 10th Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association in 1865, Richardson and Henry Lehnert entered brass instruments and Carl entered “Fine Toned Cymbals”. Data is sparse, but Richardson may not have made brass instruments after this date, the partnership concentrating on making cymbals and gongs. Henry Lehnert moved to Philadelphia in 1867 and continued to make brass instruments there. Listings in subsequent directories indicate that The business was still listed as "Richardson and Lehnert" as makers of cymbals and gongs. Carl Lehnert was granted at least two US patents, one for improved chimes in reed and pipe organs in 1871. In 1870 he was granted a patent for a folding music stand which he assigned to B.F. Richardson. The Boston Globe reported in 1872 that Richardson was making one thousand music stands for P.S. Gilmores World Peace Jubilee. In 1873, the partnership moved to 13 Bowker Street. Richardson & Lehnert entered a display of cymbals and gongs in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. In December of 1879, The American Art Journal reported that Carl Lehnert was successor to Richardson & Lehnert, continuing in the manufacture of cymbals and gongs. In the 1880 Federal census, Richardson is still listed as manufacturer of musical instruments, but a Boston Globe report of a big fire in the buildings on Bowker Street he was described as a manufacturer of music stands. The Boston Evening Transcript, in reporting the same event, described him as a machinist.
Richardson continued to be listed in the Boston Directory as a musical instrument maker until 1890, although none are known that were made by him in the later decades. Perhaps musical instruments were an unprofitable passion project and still part of his identity while he made his living making music stands and other more profitable work. It is possible that, like D.C. Hall, Patrick Gilmore and others, Richardson was a business partner that did little, if any, work in the shop, but in view of the fact that he spent a few years without a partner that made instruments, it seems likely that he did actually learn at least some of the skills needed to make such an instrument. Common practice for smaller makers was to purchase some parts from other makers and this is demonstrated in demonstrated in the circular cornet illustrated above. Whatever the case, it does seem clear that B.F. Richardson was a talented and industrious individual that emphasized quality in his products.
Many thanks to Rob Cook, percussion historian, for providing information about Carl Lehnert’s production of cymbals and gongs. This lead to a major update of Benjamin Franklin Richardson’s partnership in that concern and the importance of his production of folding music stands according to Lehnert’s patent.