Military Bugle
This military bugle was produced by the court instrument-maker Johann Heinrich Zetsche (1787–1857) circa 1850. The instrument is dented on the bell and blown wide open on its tubing, damage that appears to be from a musketball-like projectile. We can only speculate as to the origin of this destruction. There is an identical military bugle by Zetsche from the same period in the archives of the Historisches Museum Hannover. In the museum’s notes, trumpeter August Walter is said to have sounded the last signal with this bugle in the 2nd Jäger battalion of the Hanoverian Army at the Battle of Langensalza (1866). Could our bugle have been damaged in the same battle? It is worth considering, for Bad Langensalza is just 30 km from Sondershausen. This could explain how an instrument from Hannover came to reside in a museum in Thuringia.
Military Bugle, sheet copper with brass. Mr. Zetsche, Hannover, 1850. Inventory number: Mu 32. Collection: Schlossmuseum, Sondershausen.
