Paris, France
C. Baudouin

Wood, leather, brass
ca. 1815
Length: 92 in, Bell diameter: 4.5 in
Wind Instruments – Brasswinds – Serpents

Stamped two places inside the bell:  BAUDOUIN

This keyless snake-like horn was referred to as a French “Church” style Serpent and is pitched in ‘C.’  The tube is made of wood bound with leather, six tone holes, and a brass crook with its original wooden mouthpiece. The serpent was used to support and accompany the low male voice in plainsong chants beginning in the late sixteenth century in France, and later in the English church bands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  During the mid-eighteenth century it became a popular instrument in the English and German military bands.  It was also used in the orchestra as a bass voice by such composers as Handel, Haydn, Berlioz, and Mendelsohn.

According to “The New Langwill Index” The Baudouin serpent served as Charles Sax’s (Adolph’s father, a famous ophicleide maker) first model.

Resource:  C. Baudouin | Serpent | French | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org);  “The New Langwill Index: A Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors”, 1993. William Waterhouse.  Publisher: Tony  Bingham, London, pg. 21.