


Bassoon, 1881
Giosue Esposito, Naples
Maple, nickel-silver
Giosue Esposito, Naples
Maple, nickel-silver
Overall H. 51 3/4 in. (131.5 cm), box: 4 1/4 x 8 3/8 x 21 7/8 in. (10.8 x 21.2 x 55.5 cm)
Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 2003 (2003.150a–g)
A revolutionizing model of basson, with twenty-four nickel-silver keys, was developed by the bassoonist Luigi Caccavaio in Naples. Its novelty concerns all major aspects of the instrument: bore, length of the wooden sections, and the key system which incorporates elements of the Boehm system. The Caccavaio-Esposito model was too different from the mainstream bassoons to be adoptable by bassoonists.







