Object Name: Trumpet
Place of Origin: Murano, Italy
Materials Used: Glass
Date: Late 17th or early 18th century
Dimensions: L: 43.0 cm, W: 8.0 cm, H: 8.0 cm (L: 16.9 in, W: 3.1 in, H: 3.1 in)
Credit Line and Accession Number: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Anonymous gift. X97.26.1

From the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century, Italian blown-glass trumpets were traded into West African along with glass canes. Although extant examples are rare, they have been seen on shrines in the regalia of chiefs, and as the property of important merchants. The heirlooms of the nineteenth-century Kalabari leader John Bull, still held by his descendants, include a trumpet somewhat similar to this one but with a more pronounced flare. Another glass trumpet is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Source: DjeDje, J. C. (1999). “Turn Up the Volume! A Celebration of African Music”, Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. page 312