Brooklyn, New York
George Cloos Inc.  

Grenadilla, nickel-silver
ca. 1930s
Length: 16 inches
Wind Instruments – Woodwind Instruments – Flute

Engraved on wood headjoint:  GEO. CLOOS / (GC logo) / Engraved on wooden body: GEO. CLOOS / (GC logo) / 6121

This conical-bore shaped instrument is called and was advertised as a ‘B-flat Band Fife,’ by George Cloos Inc of Brooklyn, N.Y.   Nevertheless, it does not represent the earlier fifes.  Some may call it a ‘piccolo.’  The fife originally had six finger holes and was a one-piece small cylindrical transverse flute with a narrower bore. This conical-shaped instrument has six keys made of German silver and consists of 3-pieces; a small barrel joint, a tunable head joint that is fully lined, and a body joint.  It is in the modern British ‘Drum and Fife Bands’ that we find that these short conical-shaped, six keyed instruments (essentially piccolos), are called ‘fifes,’  pitched in Bb.  

George Cloos arrived in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 17, in 1851.  George began his business as a woodwind maker starting in 1862, and at some point, visited Boston and saw a Crosby fife.  Walter Crosby worked in Boston from 1828 through 1872.  He was a woodwind maker who produced fifes. There are very few of his fifes still in existence.  When the Crosby business closed in 1872, George Cloos began making a fife model called the “Crosby” model fife. By c.1900 his son Frederick Phillip was in charge of clarinet production and William of flute production.  At that time they were known as ‘George Cloos & Sons.’  George died in 1910 and in 1913 it was changed to ‘George Cloos Inc.  In 1946, the business was bought by Penzel & Muller.

Resource:  Cloos, George, ‘The New Langwill Index.’ Tony Bingham, London, Waterhouse, William. ISBN: 0-946113-04-1, pp 66-67