An excellent condition rosewood fife bearing the “CROSBY / GC” stamp of George Cloos of Brooklyn. “Crosby” is very clear. The intertwined GC below it is somewhat rubbed, with only portions of the ornate, intertwined letters readily visible, but clear enough to be sure that’s what they are. The fife also uses the German Silver (i.e. nickel) ferrules with incised zigzag border lines characteristic of Cloos.

Crosby was a well-known Boston maker of fifes during the Civil War. It appears that in the early 1880s Cloos started making and supplying “Crosby model” fifes to John C. Haynes, who was partner in a music shop in Boston, where Crosby’s name would be recognized, with Haynes not only promoting his relationship with Cloos as a musical instrument maker and supplier in that time frame, but also listing the “Crosby Model” fife in his print catalogs, which would be a selling point to Civil War veterans just at the point when G.A.R. was headed for its peak membership. (See the excellent background work recently done on these at “fifemuseum” online.)

Needless to say, fifes had a long tradition in military music, and would be especially evocative to veterans. Civil War infantry regiments were allowed two musicians per company, by tradition a fifer and drummer. Even after bands were abolished at the regimental level in 1862, company fifers and drummers were still in the field, serving in their companies and often assembled as a regimental drum corps under the supervision of a Chief Musician. Their duties involved not only playing the usual signal calls in camp, supplying music for dress parade, and music on the march, but upon going into action they were expected to help the medical teams on the battlefield and in the field hospital.

This is in excellent condition, with nice color and grain to the wood, minor surface scratches, but no cracks or chips. Overall length of the fife is 17”; the length of the metal ends is 2”.  [sr][ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!